


Gone

by Traw



Series: The Sins Of The Father [1]
Category: The Streets of San Francisco
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 79,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traw/pseuds/Traw
Summary: The odds against Steve and Mike both dying accidental deaths on the same day, around the same time, over one hundred and fifty miles apart, are just too great for it to be just co-incidental.
Series: The Sins Of The Father [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796095
Comments: 31
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Lee Lessings stared at the shattered, burnt remains of what was once Steve's LTD, wrapped around the base of a tree. He shook his head as his hand lightly touched a piece of the still warm, charred metal, he couldn't believe that Steve was really gone. What had started off as an easy Sunday, wrapping up cases while Mike was away, had now ended in tragedy.

He swallowed hard as he remembered his light teasing of Steve earlier in the day, claiming his friend's decision to go to re-interview a witness in preparation of an upcoming court case was just an excuse for him sneak off to see the pretty young waitress who had been flirting with him when they had gone to the café to buy lunch. He had laughed when Steve had stammered and blushed, admitting that he had thought about dropping back at the café on his way back to the bullpen, just for a cup of coffee and maybe to get the waitress's number.

He stared at the wreckage, still unable to believe that this was really happening, and he found himself praying that Steve had not been conscious when the car had burst into flames.

"Steve would have died instantly." Bill tried to reassure his young colleague softly, lightly placing his hand on Lee's back, answering Lee's unvoiced fear before he asked, "Does Mike know yet?"

Lee swallowed hard and shook his head. "Rudy's trying to track him down to tell him about the…the accident but he has gone away for a few days to unwind and do a little bit of fishing with an old air force buddy. Only Steve knew where he was going and he wasn't telling anyone, not even Rudy, he wanted Mike to have a couple of days to relax and not think about the job." Forcing himself to turn away from the LTD, he looked back up the trail of broken and crushed undergrowth to the muddy road above them before he looked back at Bill and asked, "Do you think this was really an accident?"

Bill, startled by Lee's question because of the overwhelming evidence of the skid marks on the slick, wet road above that indicated that Steve had lost control of his car as he rounded the bend in the road and that no other cars had been involved, stared at his upset friend and frowned. "Don't you?"

Looking back at the wreckage in which Steve had lost his life only an hour before, Lee shrugged.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Carrying the small thermos containing hot coffee in one hand and a bag in which he had packed several of his special man size club sandwiches he had just made in his other, Eric Leeds tramped down the rugged and slightly overgrown trail that led from the small cabin down to the banks of the river as he called out to his fishing companion. "Brr, it's cold enough to freeze a squirrel's nuts, I hope those fish you've been telling me about are biting."

He froze, dropping both the sandwiches and the thermos, shocked, when he reached the spot where he had left his friend fishing only a few minutes before. The chair in which his friend had been sitting was toppled over, the fishing rod was laying half in and out of the water, and it was evident that the edge of the bank had broken away into the water. He felt his heart rise into his throat as he saw the familiar, well-battered fishing hat, Mike had been wearing, bobbing up and down on the gentle waves as the deceptively strong current carried it out of sight around the bend of the river. "Ohh God, Mike!" he gasped in horror as he began to run along the river bank, keeping his eyes on the water, desperately searching for some sign, any sign, of his missing friend. "Mike? Where are you, Mike?" he yelled, "Mike, answer me!"


	2. Chapter 2

"He was only going to Sunset to go over Sullivan's statements and help Sullivan prepare for the court case this week." Lee sighed as he stared out of glass window that looked out of Mike's office into the bullpen. He still could not believe that Steve was really gone. "I teased him about trying to sneak off, while Mike was away, to flirt with that waitress at Julios."

"Lee…" Roy Devitt said softly, attempting to stop the younger man's self-recrimination. Lee had taken Steve's death hard, Roy sighed, they all had. Losing a colleague in the line of duty was extremely difficult for the whole department, even more so for the members of the homicide team, but losing Steve because of a car accident, especially an accident as horrific as this one, made it a million times worse.

He was dreading having to break the news to Mike when they discovered where Mike was vacationing. Mike had simply told everyone was he was going fishing for a week and Steve had insisted on keeping Mike's whereabouts a secret, the younger man determined that his partner's long anticipated week off would not get interrupted by work. Roy sighed, he had attempted to contact Jeannie at her college to discover her father's current whereabouts but like her father, Jeannie's current whereabouts were also unknown.

Spinning back to face his lieutenant, Lee hit the wall behind him with his fist as he growled, "He was supposed to be going to Sunset, what was he even doing on the Saddle Loop trail?"

"I don't know, " Roy answered quietly, the same questions that Lee was demanding answers to were also going through his mind. Questions he had no answers to. He knew Steve could be a little impulsive at times, maybe today that impulsiveness got him killed.

A soft rap on the office door pulled Roy from his depressing thoughts and he looked up as Bill entered the office. Glancing at Lee who had turned back to stare out at Steve's desk in the bullpen before returning his attention back to Roy, Bill walked slowly across to the desk and handed Roy a slim manila folder. "Charlie's preliminary report of the accident."

Roy nodded silently and placed the manila folder unopened on the desk, not yet willing to read the forensic details of Steve's final moments as Bill sat down on one of the chairs in front of Mike's desk and hesitantly began to tell his lieutenant the forensic findings of the accident contained in the report. "The lab boys estimate Steve's car was traveling about 60 miles an hour before Steve…" Bill swallowed hard, casting a quick glance at Lee who did not seem to be listening before returning his attention to Roy as he forced himself to continue his report as professionally as he could, "Ummm… before the driver lost control on the muddy road causing the car to leave the road and crash over the embankment. The fuel tank was ruptured as the car travelled through the undergrowth and the fuel ignited when the car hit the tree, engulfing the car in fire… Charlie also told me that there…there was no chance for…" Bill look down, unable to look at the either man as he cleared the lump from his throat and continued, "There would have been no time for … Ste…for umm…anyone to escape, even if they were able to get out of the car."

"Was there any possibility of any other cars being involved?" Roy asked quietly.

Shaking his head, Bill answered, "There were no evidence that any other cars involved, all the tire tracks at the scene have been accounted for and there was no damage to Steve's car that indicated that he might have been forced off the road. All the damage to the car is consistent with what you would expect to see from such a high-speed collision."

"Could the accident have been caused by some mechanical fault with the car? Maybe Steve's brakes failed or the accelerator…"

"Charlie checked," Bill replied softly, before taking a deep breath as he looked across at Lee who did not even appear to be listening to the conversation before looking back at Roy, "The car was in good roadworthy condition before the accident, he ruled that speed and driver error were most likely responsible for the accident."

"He knew that road was dangerous when it's raining, why was he driving so fast?" Lee demanded as he suddenly spun around to face Roy and Bill, his anger, frustration and grief bubbling over.

"That's what we are going to find out." Roy reminded Lee quietly as they were interrupted by a knock on the door before a uniformed officer opened the door and entered.

"Excuse me, Sir, I have a gentleman who is demanding to speak with whoever's in charge of the investigation into Inspector Keller's accident. He claims he is Inspector Keller's father."

"Keller's father?" Roy asked in surprise, casting a quick glance towards Bill and Lee who both appeared as confused and surprised as he felt. He had always been under the belief that both of Steve's parents had died before Steve had joined the department. The younger man had never spoken about his family or what had happened to his parents, but Roy knew that Steve had listed Mike as his Next-of-Kin in his personal file shortly after becoming Mike's partner. Returning his attention back to the young uniformed officer standing in the doorway. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir," the young officer nodded his affirmation nervously. "I have him waiting to speak to you downstairs in Duty Sergeant's office."

Rising from his chair, Roy looked across at Lee as he rounded the office desk, "I want you to try and find out Steve's movements after he left the bullpen this morning. I want to know what he was doing on Saddle Loop drive."

Lee swallowed hard and nodded woodenly as he turned and left the office, hurrying across to Steve's desk to search for the address of the witness Steve had told him that he was going to re-interview.

"Bill, I want you to try and locate Mike," Roy ordered over his shoulder as they followed the young officer out of Mike's office, "I know that sometimes Mike heads to cabin in Yosemite when he wants to do some fishing and get away from everything for a few days."

"On it, Roy." Bill acknowledged the order as he changed direction and headed across to his desk as Roy followed the young uniformed officer out of the bullpen.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Lifting the radio mic up as he pressed the button, the park rancher turned towards the thick forest that lined the river bank as he asked, "Find anything, Tom?" Releasing the button, he sighed as his radio crackled to life and he heard his partner's negative reply.

_"Nothing but some animal trails down to the water and some bear tracks along the water's edge. This guy went into the water about an hour ago, didn't he?"_

Pulling the mic back up to his mouth, the ranger pressed the button, glanced across at the anxious man who had reported his friend's disappearance and sighed as he answered softly, "Yeah, would have been about an hour ago, give or take a couple of minutes."

_"Well if he did manage to get out the water before his clothes dragged him under or hypothermia set in, with how thick the undergrowth is around here, the chances are we could walk right past him and never even see him."_

Depressing the mic button again, the ranger glanced towards the icy water before looking back at the thick ferns and trees that surround the little clearing where the two friends had been fishing less than fifty yards from one of the most secluded cabins in the park as he agreed, "Yeah, I know, but keep looking. I'm gunna head back to the station and radio for more help with the search. I will also take his friend back with me, I think we had better start contacting the victim's next-of-kin and inform them about what's happened."

_"Glad that's your job and not mine, Buddy."_

"Gee, thanks!" the ranger murmured into the radio before he allowed his hand holding the radio to drop back down to his side and he walked back towards the upset man who was still scanning the banks or the river, searching for any sign of his friend. Placing his hand on the older man's shoulder, he ordered gently, "I need you to come back to the ranger's station with me. We need to call in more searchers and I also need to get a full statement off you about what happened, as well as the contact details of Lieutenant Stone's next-of-kin."

"Mike's next-of-kin? Do we really need to contact his daughter yet? I … I mean, we haven't even found…" Eric stammered as he turned back to look at the river.

"I'm afraid so," the ranger answered gently as he began to guide the shocked man back along the trail.

"You're right," Eric agreed reluctantly, "But please, I was the one who talked Mike into joining me for a week's fishing here, I should be the one who tells her…"

_SOSF SOSF SOSF_

Humming as she carefully picked up her parent's wedding photos and wiped the dust off them, Jeannie smiled. She wanted the house to be sparkling, when her father returned from his fishing trip. She paused a moment as her finger traced lovingly over her mother's and father's smiling images before she gently returned the photo back onto its spot on the table and picked up the next photo of her father and herself at her high school graduation. Mike looked so proud.

She bit her bottom lip as she stared at her father in the photo, she could never imagine just how hard it was for him to lose his wife to cancer and be left raising a young daughter on his own. She remembered her own confusion and grief during her mother's illness and passing and how patient and gentle Mike had been with her, never once giving into his own soul shattering grief, instead he had stayed incredibly strong for her, always putting her first. And although there were times when she desperately missed her mother, she always knew Mike loved her with all his heart and would always be there for her no matter what.

Shaking her head at the melancholy thoughts away, she smiled as she imagined Mike's surprise to find her home for his birthday when he returned from his fishing trip. She had told him that this year because of the heavy study workload and exams that she would not be able to get away from college to celebrate it with him. As much as she hated to hear the disappointment that Mike tried to cover up in his voice, she wanted to surprise him with a special birthday dinner, a dinner with just the two of them, a dinner where she could tell him about her own exciting news.

_"And news just in, a driver has been killed in a fiery crash on the Saddle Loop trail earlier this morning. Police state it is believed that speed and driver error may have contributed to the crash and the driver was killed when the car left the road at high speed after sliding in muddy conditions before becoming airborne and smashing into a tree. The car is believed to have erupted into flames on impact. The driver is believed to have been killed instantly. Although the driver's body has not yet been formally identified, an unnamed source from the San Francisco Police Department has stated it is believed the driver was San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Steven Keller."_

Jeannie Stone felt the blood drain from her face as she stopped dusting and slowly turned towards the television, staring at Steve's photo as it was flashed up on the screen. There had to be some sort of mistake. She had only been talking to Steve earlier this morning as he helped her with her plans for Mike's surprise birthday dinner.

_"The San Francisco Homicide department are refusing to confirm or deny that identity of the driver is Homicide Inspector Steven Keller or if the inspector may have been involved in a high-speed police pursuit at the time of the accident or give us a reason why the driver would have been traveling at such a high speed on a public road before the accident. We will bring further updates to this breaking story as they become available…"_

She jumped as the phone began to ring before she turned slowly around and stared at it. Biting her bottom lip as she blinked away the tears, she forced herself to pick it up, knowing that the caller was probably Roy or Rudy, probably trying to call find out if Mike was home from his vacation so they could come around and break the news of Steve's death to him. Her hand shook as she pressed the phone against her ear as she whispered through her tears, "Hello…"

"Jeannie, this is Eric Leeds..."


	3. Chapter 3

Pushing the door to the Duty Sergeant's office open, Roy froze for a moment as he stared at the man slumped down on the chair with a mug of coffee clutched in his hands. The similarities between this man and Steve were uncanny, he could easily see the family resemblance between the two. Steve was just a younger version of the distraught man who looked up and was watching him as he entered. "Mr Keller?" he asked. At the other man's affirmative nod, he held out his hand and shook the other man’s hand as he introduced himself, "I'm Lieutenant Roy Devitt."

"Brian." The other man said, pointing at himself.

"Brian," Roy corrected himself, "I am one of Steve's lieutenants and I am leading the investigation into the accident that happened today."

"Steve's accident?"

"We have not yet formally identified the driver," Roy cautioned him, "unfortunately given the circumstances of the accident, formal identification may take some time, so until we do, we can't confirm the victim is your son."

"But even if you haven't been able to officially identify his body, you do know it's Steve, don't you? I mean, I was told it was his unmarked police car and he was the last person known to be driving it."

"I'm afraid so." Roy nodded reluctantly before his frown deepened in confusion as to why this man whom Steve had never spoken about and everyone had assumed had died was so suddenly interested in what had happened to his son as he shook his head and admitted, "I'm sorry Brian, but Steve never spoke about you, I guess I just assumed that…"

"I was dead," Brian finished as he looked down into his cup of coffee before he looked back up uncomfortably at Roy, "I guess in Steve's mind I was." He swallowed hard as Roy frowned in confusion before he added resignedly, "Not that I could really blame him for not wanting me in his life anymore, after all, I am the one who killed his mother."

"You killed his mother?" Roy gasped in surprise as he stared at the distraught man sitting in front of him, no wonder Steve had never spoken about his family. "How … I mean …"

Brian nodded and swallowed hard, his hand tightening around the mug he was holding as he softly admitted how through one stupid but extremely selfish and deadly act had totally destroyed his family, causing him not to only lose the woman he loved with all his heart but the son he would lay down his own life for. "If you want to know if I murdered her," Brian looked up and slowly shook his head, "The answer is legally… no… what happened was an accident and I was guilty of manslaughter but Steve has made it quite clear that as far as he is concerned, I did murder her, not that I can blame him."

Running his hand over his head, in a move Roy had often seen Steve do when he was thinking about something or when he was feeling stressed, Brian swallowed hard and continued, looking down at the mug he held in his hands, unable to look Roy in the eye. "It was our twentieth wedding anniversary, Steve was away at Uni, studying his first year of law. We had gone out to dinner to celebrate. Well, I guess I had a little too much to drink. I … um, I can't remember the accident, I just remember waking up in the hospital and being told the Jenny had died. The police officer told me that I had lost control of the car and had crashed into a tree. Jenny didn't have a chance, she took the full impact, she was killed instantly, and I escaped with just minor injuries. Steve was devastated, he couldn't forgive me for killing his mother. The last time I spoke or even saw him was at Jenny's funeral. He didn't even come to my trial when I pleaded guilty to gross vehicle manslaughter for Jenny's death."

Roy stared at Brian in surprise, wondering just what the other man had left out of his story, "You pleaded guilty to gross vehicle manslaughter?"

"Yeah," Brian nodded slowly, chewing on the inside of his check before he sighed and looked back up at Roy, "You see, I … I had a couple of prior convictions for DUI. After the second one, after Jenny had bailed me out, I promised both her and Steve that I had learned my lesson and I would never drink and drive again. I guess that's one of the reasons why Steve couldn't forgive me after the accident." Roy nodded silently as Brian looked back down into the mug of coffee. "I always hoped that one day that maybe … just maybe … one day that he would forgive me, God knows why because I can never forgive myself for what I did … but I guess now that's never going to happen." His voice trailed away, and he swallowed hard again. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at Roy, his heartbreak written across his face as he hesitated and then asked, "The news said he was killed when the car crashed into a tree and caught on fire, please, I need to know, do they know if he suffered at all?" He choked on a sob as a tear trickled down his cheek as he closed his eyes and half murmured, half prayed, "Oh God, I hope he didn't know what was happening…"

"We haven't received the results of the autopsy yet but the officers whom I have spoken to, who attended the scene, all agree that they believe Steve probably died instantly."

"Can…can I see him?"

Roy quickly shook his head as the image of Steve's body, when he had attempted to make a visual identification and failed in the morgue, slammed into his mind, "No, sorry but I don't think that would be a good idea."

Brian nodded slowly as they were interrupted by a light rap on the door.

Glancing at the upset man, Roy sighed before he turned and walked across to the door, opening it.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Roy," Lee said quietly, glancing into the room at the man sitting on the other side of the table, staring into an almost full mug of coffee, before returning his attention back to his lieutenant, "But there's an important phone call for you. It's Jeannie Stone and she sounds extremely upset."

"Jeannie?"

"She's asking for you but she's not making much sense." Lee nodded before adding softly, “She said she heard about Steve on the television and then said something about Mike has gone missing while fishing in Yosemite Park and they think he has drowned."

"She said Mike's missing and is presumed drowned?" Roy asked, stunned by the news.

Lee swallowed and nodded as he attempted to push down his grief in front of the man who claimed he was Steve's father and who had now looked up and appeared to be listening into their conversation.

Turning back to Brian, Roy cleared his throat, "Sorry, but I have to go but Inspector Lessings will get your contact details and I promise as soon as we know anything more about what the accident or we are able to confirm that the crash victim is Steve, I will contact you."

Brian nodded as he watched Roy turn and head out the door before he said, "Sorry Lieutenant but before you go, I have just one more question I really need to ask." Turning back, Roy frowned as Brian rushed on. "I was wondering are you sure there were any no other cars involved in Steve's accident?"

Roy's frown deepened as he cast a quick glance across at Lee who seemed as confused by the question as he was before returning his attention back to Brian, "No, as I told you so far, all our investigations at the crash site indicate that Steve lost control of his car in the wet and hit the tree. Why?"

"I was just…" Brian shrugged and sighed, "I guess am just still trying to accept what happened, I guess I am just trying to work out in my own head what happened to my boy."

Roy nodded before he turned and hurried out of the office as Lee walked across to the table where Brian was still seated and began to take the man's details.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Clutching the phone tightly against her ear, Jeannie could not stop shaking as the tears ran freely down her face, there had to be some awful mistake, it just couldn't be true! No way could she have lost both Mike and Steve from two separate accidents on the same day…no way… she couldn't have…

_"Jeannie? It's Roy Devitt."_

She jumped as she heard Roy's gentle voice and she clutched the phone tighter as she cried, "Oh Roy, it's Mike, he's missing, Eric thinks he's drowned." The words tumbled out in a rush as she turned back towards the television screen just in time for her to see another newsflash flashed up on the screen. Closing her eyes tightly to stop herself from seeing the images of the blackened remains of a car, Steve's car, as the news presenter's now muted voice again repeated the top story of the hour about the death of the young homicide inspector, she swiftly spun back around, her knuckles turning white as she held the phone tighter against her ear. "And the news is saying Steve's …. Steve's gone… Oh God, Roy, please tell me it isn't true, there has to be some sort of a mistake." Dropping to her knees with the phone still held to her ear, she moaned brokenheartedly, "Oh God, please Roy, please tell me this is all horrible mistakes, I... I can't have lost both of them…"

_"Jeannie… Jeannie, listen to me,"_ she heard Roy say softly in her ear, _"I need you to try and calm down a little, can you do that for me?"_

Drawing a deep breath, she nodded her head as she managed to whisper, "Okay…" through her tightened throat.

_"Good girl, now I need you to tell me, what's happened to Mike?"_

Swallowing hard as she bit her bottom lip in an attempt to stop crying, she held the phone tighter as she forced herself to speak, "Mike's missing. They believe that he fell into the river a couple of hours ago when he was fishing," She swallowed hard again, blinking away the tears that began rolling down her checks again, "They are searching for him now but they haven't been able to find him. Oh Roy, Eric said the rangers think that Mike has drowned in the cold water. He said the chances of Mike being able to stay conscious and get himself out of the freezing water and the strong current are slim. They don't think that he could have saved himself."

_"Where did he go fishing?"_

"Yosemite, he and Eric Leeds rented a cabin there. Mike was so excited to catch up and spend some time with Eric and also be able to get in a bit of fishing…" Jeannie's voice trailed off.

_"Listen Jeannie, until they find a body, we have to keep the faith that Mike managed to get out of the water and is making his way back to the cabin."_ Roy told her quietly, _"We both know that Mike's a fighter, he wouldn't give up without a fight and we shouldn't give up on him either, so until we hear something, we have to believe that Mike's still alive. Do you think you can do that for Mike?"_

"I…I'll try," Jeannie whispered.

_"Good girl."_

"What about Steve, Roy, is it true what they are saying on the television about the … the accident?" Jeannie asked timidly, fearing the answer. Her chest tightened as she heard Roy hesitate before he answered.

_"We haven't identified the body yet…"_

"But it's Steve?" Jeannie asked again, already knowing the answer from tone of the older man's voice.

_"Yeah, it’s Steve."_ Roy sighed as he struggled to keep his own grief out of his voice, _"We're just waiting for Bernie to formally identify Steve's body…"_

"Oh God," Jeannie whimpered, "How…how did it happen?"

_"We're still investigating it, but it looks like Steve was speeding and lost control of the car."_ Rudy answered softly, his heart breaking as he heard Jeannie's soft sobbing on the other end of the phone before he asked gently, _"Jeannie, where are you?"_

Swallowing a sob, Jeannie whispered, "I'm at home. Steve…Steve and I were planning a birthday dinner for…for Mike… while he…he was away… "

_"Is there anyone with you?"_

"No."

_"Listen Jeannie, I'm going to get Sandra to come over and stay with you while I make some calls to the ranger station at Yosemite and find out what happened, I will also send Bill to give them a hand in the search."_

"There's no need to disturb Sandra…" Jeannie began, feeling guilty about disturbing Roy's wife.

_"We both know that Sandra would kill me if she found out that I never called her and left you waiting for news about Mike, alone."_ Roy quickly interrupted before he added softly, _"And I promise as soon as I find out anything, you will be the first person I call."_

"Thanks Roy," Jeannie sniffled.

_"And Jeannie,"_ Roy took a deep breath before he added softly, _"I'm really sorry about Steve, I know how close you the two of you were… "_

"Thanks…" Jeanie whispered as she slowly hung up the phone, dropping the receiver back onto its cradle before she sunk to the floor. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging them tightly as she buried her face onto her knees and cried.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Laying on the back seat of the car, covered by a blanket, Mike shifted uncomfortably as he wriggled his fingers and toes, trying to relieve the pins and needles in his hands and feet caused by his hands and feet being bound too tightly for a long period of time. He wasn't sure how long they had been driving or even who they were. The last thing he could remember was being forced at gunpoint by two men to walk along a rough trail away from where he had spent the morning relaxing and fishing on the riverbank just below the small secluded cabin that Eric and he had been renting for their little get away vacation. He had regained consciousness just minutes before, bound and gagged beneath the dirty blanket, the back of his head aching. He closed his eyes, battling the nausea as the darkness began to pull him under again.


	4. Chapter 4

Slowly hanging up the phone after speaking with the ranger at Yosemite Park, Roy allowed the air to rush out of his lungs in one loud swoosh as he wiped the moisture from his eyes. He couldn't believe just how much of a nightmare this day had become, first losing Steve, and now Mike's disappearance and suspected drowning. Slowly forcing himself to his feet, he walked to the office door and asked Lee and Bill to come into the office. Turning, he returned to Mike's chair and sat down, rubbing his hand tiredly over his face as the two men entered the office and closed the door behind them.

"Mike's been reported missing," he told both softly, "presumed drowned."

"How? When?" Bill asked, stunned.

"He went fishing with a friend at Yosemite National Park. They believe he fell into the water while fishing, they are searching for him now but because of the extremely cold water and the high risk of hyperthermia, Jeanie has been warned to expect the worse." Roy sighed as he looked over their shoulders into the bullpen as he struggled to keep his composure. He had known Mike for almost thirty years and the thought that he had lost one, no, not one, but two very good friends in just one day was tearing him apart. Forcing himself to stay in cop mode and lead by example, he looked across at Bill as he ordered, "Bill, I want you to go to Yosemite and join in the search, find out precisely what happened there today and I want you to notify me immediately when Mike's … ," he swallowed hard, blinking back the unshed tears that were burning the back of his eyes as he forced himself to continue, "when Mike is found…"

Bill swallowed hard and nodded woodenly before he turned and left the room, still shocked at the news that they had lost both Mike and Steve.

"Do you..." Lee stopped and cleared his throat noisily as he tried to control the tremor in his voice before he continued, "Do you think there's a possibility that Mike's disappearance and Steve's deaths…"

"Might be linked?" Roy finished for him before slowly nodding, "Has to be. The odds against Steve and Mike both dying accidental deaths on the same day, around the same time, over one hundred and fifty miles apart, are just too great for it to be just co-incidental. I want you to start going through Mike's and Steve's cases, check out anyone who has threatened them or has recently been paroled or released."

"That's a lot of cases…" Lee frowned.

"Get some uniformed guys to help you." Roy told him.

Nodding, Lee turned before he hesitated near the door and turned back to his lieutenant who was beginning to go through the drawers in Mike's desk, "How is Jeannie taking the news?" he asked softly.

"Hard." Roy answered distractedly as he removed his keys from his pocket and unlocked the bottom drawer as he searched for anything that might explain why Mike and Steve might have been targeted. Momentarily stopping his search, he glanced back up at Lee as he added. "I asked Sandra to go over the Mike's place to stay with her until we get can find out what has happened to Mike."

"She's at Mike's place?"

"Yeah, she said she came home for the week while Mike was away so that she and Steve could plan a birthday dinner for Mike when he…" Roy's voice trailed off as he found himself staring at a manila folder hidden at the bottom of the drawer beneath several other files, with the name 'Brian Keller' neatly written in Mike's handwriting across the front. Frowning as he looked back up at Lee, he asked, "Did Steve's father leave you an address where he is staying?"

"Yeah, he's got a room at the Fairfax. Said he's been staying there, trying to get his life back on track, ever since he got out of prison."

"Has Steve ever talked about him?" Roy asked.

"No," Lee shook his head before he shrugged and quietly admitted, "I mean, I knew Steve had lost his mother just after he started studying law, but when Steve never talked about his father, I guess I always assumed that he had lost his father as well."

"I guess we all did," Roy agreed before he added what Lee knew instantly as a dismissal, "Let me know if you find anything,"

Nodding, Lee turned and left the office, closing the door behind him.

Waiting until the younger man left, Roy lifted the file, he had found, out of the drawer and placed it on the table. Frowning, he opened the file containing information that it appeared Mike had secretly been collecting on his partner's father.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slowly lifting the sheet and gently covering the charred remains of the body that he had spent most of the afternoon attempting to autopsy and formally identify, Bernie sighed as he nodded to his attendants to place the body into one of the refrigerated drawers that lined the wall. He turned and picked up the clipboard that he had placed in easy reach on a table next to the autopsy table. He paused and turned to watch as the body was gently lifted from table and placed on the gurney. He sighed again feeling like he had just failed the young Homicide inspector and the whole Homicide team but the damage from the accident and subsequent fire… there was just no possible way he could make a legal, definitive identification that the body was Steve's, no matter how much he wanted to. The best he could possibly do was a maybe … it could be… but there was no way he could positively say yes, it's definitely Steve. Looking back at the autopsy sheet he was holding in his hand, he reluctantly filled 'JOHN DOE' into the space for the victim's name before he turned and headed towards the door.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Stepping out onto the footpath, Brian paused as he ran a shaking hand over his hair, leaving it to rest on the back of his neck, his heart was racing as he looked around, desperate for a drink. The lieutenant had confirmed the news broadcaster's speculation about the identity of the driver killed in the fiery crash had been correct. Although the brat's body had not yet been formally identified, which meant that any chance of getting his hands on the brat's life insurance would now have to wait until the formal identification was made, the Homicide lieutenant left him with no doubts that driver killed in the crash was his kid.

He swallowed hard. They had warned him what would happen if he double crossed them, but the temptation had been too great and now they had followed through with their threat. They had killed his ungrateful brat and he had no doubts that he would be next.

Removing his trembling hand from the back of his neck, he licked his dry lips as he spotted the small bar down the street. Turning in that direction, he took a few hesitant steps towards it before he stopped and fearfully looked around again, terrified he would spot one of them sitting in a car, watching him, just waiting for their chance to pounce. He released a shuddering breath of relief when no one around him seemed even remotely interested in him.

Turning back towards the street, he hailed down a passing cab and opened the door, scrambling onto the back seat as soon as it pulled over, sliding down as low as he could. Quickly slamming the door closed behind him, he instructed the driver to take him to 287 Union Street. Turning to peek out of the back window, he began to watch for anyone who might be following as the cab pulled away from the curb.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Looking up from the file that Mike had been collecting on Steve's father, Roy waved Bernie in as the coroner knocked on the office door. The look on Bernie's face, and the fact he had brought the coroner's report personally, warned Roy that he was about to be told what he already knew in his heart but did not really want to hear confirmed officially, that the victim was Steve. "Well?" he asked hesitantly as Bernie handed him the slim manila folder before placing it, unopened, on the desk in front of him as he looked up at the other man.

"There wasn't much to work with," Bernie began slowly as he sat down, "as you know, the fire was extremely intense, making it impossible to make any sort of visual identification of the body. But I can tell you cause of death was trauma sustained in the initial accident, the driver died instantly from head, chest and internal injuries when the car hit the tree. The driver's side of the car took the full impact…and if Charlie's estimates were correct about the speed of the car when it hit the tree, and I do believe Charlie's estimations are right, the driver didn't have a chance."

"But you were able to confirm that the driver was Steve?" Roy frowned as he reluctantly opened the folder.

"I'm sorry Roy, I tried…" Bernie answered softly as he watched Roy scan the report and look up at him in surprise as he continued, "but the damage to the body was just too severe."

"What about dental records? Steve's medical records? I know that he broke his arm during an arrest when he first joined Homicide, maybe x-rays…?" Roy asked, his heart sinking that Bernie had not been able to identify Steve.

Bernie shook his head as he told Roy softly, "I'm sorry, but it just wasn't possible, I tried… I know the chances that it was anyone else driving Steve's car when it crashed is extremely slim but there is still that slim chance that someone else may have been and without definite medical evidence that proves the body belongs to Steve, I just can't confirm that the body in the car was Steve...I'm sorry, I did try."

Roy nodded as he opened the file and looked back down at the name 'John Doe' written in the space for the victim's name before he looked back up at the upset coroner who was watching him closely, "I know you did, Bernie, I was just hoping…"

"I know…" Bernie sighed.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Sitting against the hard support of the wall, Steve leaned his aching head back and closed his eyes as he carefully held his throbbing arm against his chest and swallowed hard, trying to ignore the waves of nausea that had plagued him since he had regained consciousness. He wasn't sure where he was or even how long he had been here. The last memory that he had been able to drag up was leaving Sullivan's apartment after going over Sullivan's witness statement with the frightened man in preparation for the Rodrigues court case that was due to start later in the week. He had no memory of making it to his car or even how he had come to be in this small, bare, windowless room.

Hearing heavy footsteps approach the door, he unsteadily rose slowly to his feet, clutching his broken arm a little tighter against his painful ribs as he heard a key turn in the lock before the door slowly opened. An older man entered and aimed a gun at his chest as Steve took a small step forward and demanded, "Who are you? Why are you-?"

"Shut your mouth, Keller, and stay right where you are before I decide that I don't really need you after all!" the man answered coldly as he moved out of the doorway and a little further into the room, allowing two more men dragging someone wrapped in a blanket between them to enter. The motionless body was unceremoniously dropped onto the hard cement floor before the three men silently backed out slowly, slamming the door closed.

Hearing the key turn in the lock, Steve limped as fast as he could to where the blanketed body was lying. Gritting his teeth against the pain that seemed to flare through every part of his body, he knelt and gently lifted the blanket away. "Mike!" he gasped as he stared at his partner's pale face. Staring at the still body, he placed his trembling fingers against Mike's cool neck, releasing a breath he had even realized he was holding as he felt the strong, regular thump against his fingertips. Gently shaking Mike's shoulder, he called softly, "Mike, Mike, can you hear me?" His heart sunk when there was no response from Mike to his soft, desperate behest.

Swallowing hard as a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over him, he grabbed Mike with his uninjured arm and carefully began to pull Mike and the blanket covering his friend with him as he awkwardly shuffled on his knees backwards. Easing himself down against the firm support of the wall, he gently placed Mike's head onto his lap before he tried to cover Mike back up with the blanket. Placing his good arm protectively across Mike's chest, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, allowing the darkness that hovered around the edge of his consciousness to pull him back into its soft pain free cocoon of black nothingness.


	5. Chapter 5

Standing on the riverbank where Mike had disappeared, Bill stared at the fast-flowing water, his heart sinking as he listened to the ranger's report of Mike's disappearance.

"Lieutenant Stone and Mr Leeds were renting the cabin just up the trail. Mr Leeds said that he left Lieutenant Stone alone for a few minutes to set up their camping chairs on the bank to do a morning of fishing while he returned to the cabin to grab some hot coffee and sandwiches. But when he returned, Lieutenant Stone was missing, and it appeared that he had fallen into the river. He searched for the lieutenant for about an hour before he contacted us." The ranger shook his head as he turned his back on the river as he turned back to Bill and sighed, "The bank along this stretch of the river is being severely eroded away by debris and the higher water levels caused by the river ice melting further upstream. We believe that the erosion probably caused the bank to give way underneath Lieutenant Stone with little or no warning when he moved closer to the edge, probably while casting. With the current running as strong as it is, combined with the freezing water and the fact he was dressed in heavy jeans, boots and a thick woollen jacket, he didn't have a chance, he probably went straight under and didn't come up."

"What are the chances of us finding Mike alive?" Bill frowned as he pulled his jacket closed tighter, shivering as the icy wind blew off the water.

"Do you want the standard answer we give to friends and family or do you want me to tell you the truth?" the ranger asked softly as he began to lead Bill down the path that snaked along the bank towards one of the areas where the search parties were searching.

"The truth." Bill answered slowly as he found himself scanning the river as they walked along the water's edge.

"It's been almost eight hours since he went into the water, and even if he did manage to get out..." the ranger shrugged uncomfortably, "It's early summer, there's still snow on the ground in some areas around here, the water temp is just above freezing and the air temp struggled to even reach 51 today, then when you add in the wind chill and the fact he was wet, so even if he did manage to get himself out of the water, the chances of him still being alive…"

Bill nodded, aware that it would not have taken long for hypothermia to set in.

"Look, I know that he was your lieutenant, but this probably isn't a search and rescue anymore, it's probably more a search and recovery mission, that's if we can even find his body. The chances are its snagged underwater on debris in the river or washed miles downstream by now, and if he did manage to get out, the animals are coming out of hibernation, they're going to be hungry…" the ranger paused just before they reached the search party before he turned back and looked at Bill, "I'm sorry …"

Bill swallowed hard and nodded as the ranger turned and led him across to where the members of the search party were standing, studying a map before introducing him to the members of the search party.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slapping Mike's file on Brian Keller closed, Roy shoved it away, sickened by some of the details he had just read before he pushed himself away from the desk and stood up, walking quickly out of the office on the pretence of grabbing himself a fresh cup of coffee. He needed a few minutes to calm down before he returned to finish reading the rest of the file Mike had been collecting on Brian Keller.

Taking a deep breath as he grabbed a mug and poured himself some coffee, he shook his head in disgust, no wonder why Mike had been checking up on his partner's father, the man was the scum of the earth. Although Brian had tried to make Roy believe, less than an hour ago, that he loved his wife and son, from the little Roy had so far read, it was evident that he loved drinking and gambling much more, as well as using his fists, sometimes for money when he needed to fund his drinking and gambling habits, but more often on his wife and his young son.

Roy turned and stared at Steve's empty desk. In the two short years Mike had partnered with the younger man, they had grown extremely close, not only as partners but also as friends. In fact, Mike had become quite protective of Steve, but Roy now found himself wondering, despite how close Mike and Steve had grown, just how much Steve had told Mike about his childhood and about his father, and just how much Mike had discovered on his own.

"Roy!"

Roy jumped slightly and looked up as Norm Haseejian entered the bullpen and hurried over to the coffee table where Roy was standing, "Lee asked me to check out Steve's movements before…before the…the accident…" He shook his head as he turned and stared at the young inspector's now empty desk as he murmured, "Damn, I can't believe Steve is actually gone… Mike's going to take it…"

"Steve's movements?" Roy prodded softly when Norm fell silent, not yet willing to share the news about Mike's disappearance until they knew for certain what had happened to their friend, and unwilling to allow anyone involved with investigating Steve's death to be distracted by their grief. They owed it not only to themselves, but also for Mike and to Steve, himself, to find out just what happened on that muddy road.

"Steve's movements," the uniformed sergeant parroted softly as he forced himself to look away from the empty desk and look back at the Homicide lieutenant who was waiting for his report, "Umm, Lee told me that when Steve left here, he was going to Sunset to go over Sullivan's witness statement with him before the court case this week. I checked with Sullivan, he told me that Steve had met him at his apartment about ten to go over his witness statement with him before the court case this week. He said they went over the statement for about an hour before Steve left about eleven."

"Did Steve happen to mention where he was going next?" Roy asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, so I checked with headquarters, Steve didn't radio in but one of the guys just told me that he passed Steve's car speeding south on Mission Street out of the city, a little after eleven."

"Why didn't he tell anyone after the accident?" Roy growled.

"He was off duty and headed home from church when he saw Steve's car speed past in the other direction." Norm rushed to explain before he added, "He didn't even know about the accident until he came on duty just a few minutes ago."

"And he's sure it was Steve's car?"

"Positive, he said although he didn't see the driver, he recognized the car and wondered where Steve was headed in such a rush without using his lights and sirens. That was the last confirmed sighting, so far, of Steve's car before the accident but I will keep checking."

"Thanks, Norm."

Norm nodded before he turned and swallowed hard, glancing again at Steve's empty desk as he walked past it, still unable to quite believe that he would never see the young man again as he left the bullpen.

After watching Norm leave, Roy slowly looked back at Steve's empty desk and frowned. Why had Steve suddenly decided to speed out of the city without radioing in and telling headquarters where he was going or why?

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Carefully slipping the thin nail file and bobby pin into the lock, Brian frowned in concentration, trying to stop his hands from shaking as he carefully juggled both items around in the lock until he heard the distinct click of the door unlocking. Quickly removing his tools of the trade, he opened the door and slipped inside his son's apartment before swiftly closing the door behind him. Moving across to the window, he parted the curtain just enough to peer outside and reassure himself that no one had followed the cab. Allowing the curtain to fall back down into place, he released a breath of relief as he slowly turned and looked around the comfortably furnished room. There was a small collection of framed photos sitting atop the overflowing bookcase that sat against the far wall and what appeared to be psychology and police science textbooks were scattered across the small coffee table in front of a comfortable looking sofa.

He grinned as he noticed a pair of wine glasses, one glass marked with red lipstick and ice bucket that contained an open bottle of wine sat on the floor in front of the open fireplace. The carefully laid out blanket and several scattered pillows on the floor in front of the coffee table instantly told him that Steve had not spent his last night alone. Maybe the kid did take after him after all.

Walking across the room, Brian leaned down and snatched up the nearly empty bottle of wine from the bucket, ignoring the water that dripped from it as he lifted the bottle to his lips and took a large swig of the last dregs of the now warm wine as he continued to explore the apartment.

Stepping into the small kitchenette, he dropped the now empty wine bottle into the sink and opened the small bar and bar fridge he had spotted beneath the breakfast bench. He nodded in satisfaction before he turned and opened the small pantry and fridge and stared at their contents. Although the pantry and fridge were not as well stocked as he would have liked, there was enough food for him to lay low for a couple of days until he could disappear but a small smile of relief flickered across his face, at least the bar was fully stocked.

Grabbing a tall glass and a bottle of bourbon from the bar, he poured himself a large drink, ignoring the liquid as it splashed over the glass rim onto his hand as he picked the glass up and the bottle and carried them across the small living room to the sofa and sat down.

It had been a big risk to go to the police station to confirm if the news reports about the brat's death were true, but he needed to know. If they had carried out their threat about killing Steve then he knew they would now be looking for him because they knew what he had done, but how Hell did they find out?

Taking another large sip, he grimaced as the fiery liquid burned the back of his throat as he swallowed hard and as he turned and stared at the photos on the top of the bookshelf, photos of Steve and his friends, there was even a photo of the bitch whom he had been stupid enough to marry - Jenny. He froze as he noticed a photo of Steve and his partner amongst the other photographs on the top shelf of the bookcase. Lowering the glass, he still held in his hand, back down onto the coffee table, he slowly rose to his feet and walked across to the bookcase, before picking up the photo and staring at it. Of course, … Stone!

That had to be the answer! They must have seen Stone talking to him in that bar the night when Steve's interfering partner had demanded to know why he wanted to reconnect with his son and then had the audacity to try and order him to stay away from his own kid. They must have thought that he had decided to double-cross them with the last person that they would have ever suspected him to join up with – Stone! Slamming down the photo on top of the bookshelf, he turned and walked back over to the coffee table and grabbed the glass of bourbon, gulping down the contents before he grabbed the bottle and poured himself another drink.

Damn it, Steve was his kid and if he decided he wanted to see his own kid after he got out of prison, it was nobody else's business but his own! Hell, he had supported the brat for years, it was only fair the brat supported him for a little while until the heat was off and he was able to get away to live the life that had been denied to him because of being dragged down by an ungrateful wife and a snotty-nosed kid. Lifting the glass up to his lips, he downed the contents as his temper and resentment grew. Why couldn't Stone just have kept his nose out where it wasn't wanted?

Throwing the empty glass across the room in anger, he watched it smash against the wall before he sat heavily down on the sofa and picked up the bottle, taking a large swig of its contents. Damn it, this was all Stone's fault! He had ruined everything!

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Picking up the evidence bag containing the burned remains of the clothing sent up from the morgue when Bernie began his autopsy of the body in Keller's car, Charlie opened the bag and carefully laid the small remnants of the burned and blackened material out on the table. He sighed as he carefully straightened out the heavily damaged pieces, searching for anything that might help identify the clothing's owner. He knew that it was a long shot but it was worth a try.

Using a pair of tweezers to gently move the damaged material apart, he paused as he noticed a small splash of color amid the black. Carefully picking up the small burnt edged patch of material that measured less than two inches' square with the tweezers, he held it up towards the light and studied it closely as a small smile of excitement tugged at his lips. It wasn't much but it might just be enough. Quickly grabbing a small plastic evidence bag, he carefully slid it inside, quickly sealing the bag before he turned and hurried out of the door.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Steve bit his lip to stop himself from crying out as he felt Mike suddenly shift on his lap, jostling his injured arm, sending shards of white-hot agony down to his fingertips and up through his shoulder and chest, leaving him feeling nauseous and lightheaded. Swallowing hard as he tried to ignore the pain, he looked down, relieved to see Mike's confused blue eyes blinking up at him as he tried to prevent the older man from moving, fearful of just how badly Mike might be injured. "Easy Mike, don't move," he told Mike gently as he kept his good arm firmly across Mike's chest, preventing his friend from moving or sitting up, "You've been out for a couple of hours."

Mike swallowed hard and lifted his head to look around, groaning as the world around him suddenly began to spin wildly. He quickly dropped his head back down on Steve's lap and rolled onto his side.

"Mike?"

Taking a few shaky breaths as he waited for the dizziness and nausea to ease a little, Mike closed his eyes tightly as he lightly squeezed his partner's leg as he heard Steve's anxious whisper and felt his partner's comforting grip on his shoulder, supporting him as he turned his face towards the floor. "I'm…I'm okay," he breathed softly as the dizziness and nausea subsided and he opened his eyes. "Just a little dizzy." he murmured as he pushed himself up to sit against the wall as Steve reluctantly and awkwardly tried to help.

Mike closed his eyes for a moment and sat as still as he could, waiting for the room to stop spinning again before he opened them and found himself staring into Steve's worried and bruised face.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Steve asked anxiously as he left his hand protectively on Mike's arm.

Mike nodded slowly as he raised his hand and felt the back of his head, wincing as his fingers lightly touched the tender spot where he had been hit. "I'm fine," he lied, forcing a small smile as he ignored the dizziness that threatened to topple him and his now churning stomach as he studied the stiff way Steve was holding himself up and the way Steve held his arm against his chest. "Just a bit of a sore head, how about you?" he asked as he carefully reached for Steve's arm.

"I think my arm is broken," Steve hissed, his face draining of color, as he pulled his arm away from Mike's gentle examination and cradled it tightly against his sore ribs as he added, " and maybe a couple of ribs. They must have got the jump on me… I …I don't remember…"

"This was well planned, Buddy boy, they must have followed me to Yosemite and waited until I was alone up at the cabin before they grabbed me, they probably waited for the perfect opportunity to grab you as well."

Steve nodded, biting his lip as another shard of white-hot pain lanced through his arm.

"Any idea where we are?" Mike asked softly, ignoring his own dizziness, as he carefully removed Steve's tie from around his neck and quickly tied both ends together, "Or why they grabbed both of us?"

"No, I was hoping you might know but I know there are at least three of them," Steve gritted his teeth as Mike gently lifted his broken arm and placed it in the makeshift sling before he shakily continued, "two of them dragged you into the room while the third kept a gun on me."

"Did you recognize any of them?"

"No." Steve shook his head again, immediately regretting it, closing his eyes as he began to describe the men. "One is blond, early 30's, blue eyes, about 6'3, 180 pounds."

"Sounds like one of the guys who grabbed me." Mike nodded before he asked, "What about the second man?"

"He's 6'1, dark hair, about the same age but muscular, like he works out a lot, about 210-220." Opening his eyes, Steve grimaced as Mike nodded and began to palpate his sore ribs. 'The other guy is smaller than the other two but definitely in charge, … 5'8, 5'9…late 30's, dark hair… brown eyes and a …"

"And a deep jagged scar running down his left cheek starting just below the eye and ending near the corner of his mouth." Mike finished for him.

"Yeah," Steve nodded slowly as he squinted at Mike in surprise, "how did you know?"

"Sam Quintin, he was one of the two men who grabbed me," Mike paused as he lightly grabbed Steve's chin and tilted his head up a little so he could check Steve's pupils as he added, "He was also your father's cellmate …"

"My father's cellmate?" Steve parroted softly, his eyes narrowing with suspicion, "How do you know that?"

"I did some checking on your father," Mike admitted quietly, relieved to see both of Steve's pupils were equal and reactive before he released Steve's chin and carefully eased himself back down beside Steve, resting his own sore head against the cool wall behind him as he continued, "after you told me about your father and the real reason why you become a cop."

"Mike, I thought I told you to leave that alone…"

"I know you did, Buddy boy, but when your father started calling the station looking for you after he was released…"

"He's out?" Steve's face whitened as he began to stare at the wall on the other side of the room.

Mike nodded carefully, "He was released two weeks ago. You didn't know?"

"No, but I guess I knew he would be getting out soon, I just didn't think it would be this early. I thought he still had a few years to serve." Steve swallowed hard as he unconsciously held his broken arm a little tighter to his chest, and for a split-second, Mike caught a glimpse of the badly beaten and frightened little boy whom he had read about so many times in the Modesto police reports he had gotten about Brian Keller. Taking a deep shuddering breath, Steve looked back at Mike and shook his head, ignoring the dizziness the small movement caused. "But I'm surprised that I haven't seen him after he tried to reach me at the station, he's probably expecting a handout."

"That's because I met up with him and warned him to stay away from you," Mike answered as he reached up and lightly squeezed Steve's tense shoulder as he added. "or else I would make sure that he would find himself back in jail so fast it would make his head swim."

"Thanks," Steve murmured as he looked back down at his lap unable to look Mike in the face, grateful for what Mike had done for him but his heart sinking as he realized that his partner now probably knew everything that he had worked so hard to keep hidden from everyone about his childhood. Looking back up, acutely aware Mike was watching him carefully, Steve sighed as he looked at the closed door, "Any idea why they grabbed us?'

Mike shook his head, swallowing hard as he tasted the sour taste of bile as it rose into the back of his throat as the small movement caused the world around him to spin wildly again. "I was hoping you that might know."

Running a shaky hand over his head, grimacing as his hand lightly touched the large lump on the back of his head, Steve shrugged as he closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "If Quintin is involved, you can bet so is my father." Opening his eyes, he looked across at Mike as he sighed, "I'm sorry, Mike, that my father decided to drag you into whatever is going on."

"It's not your fault, Buddy Boy," Mike squeezed Steve's shoulder, "So let's try getting out of here first, then we can work out what your father has gotten us into."


	6. Chapter 6

Sitting back at Mike's desk, Roy picked up and stared at the photo of Brian Keller for several minutes before tossing it back down on the desk in disgust. He had found it incredibly difficult to read the file Mike had collected on his partner's father. The man may have once loved his little family, although Roy was starting to doubt it, but it was becoming more and more evident that Brian loved gambling and drinking more.

There were multiple reports of the Modesto police attending the family home after neighbors had called them reporting the sounds of loud arguments, terrified cries and pain-filled screams and the sound of smashing furniture coming from the home. Each time the officers arrived, Brian would reek of alcohol and tell them 'the little missus' had begun nagging him about his drinking and the argument had turned into a fight where he had thrown a chair, punched the wall or even knocked over the television rather than strike her or the brat. And far too often, the Modesto police officers would leave, satisfied with his explanation rather than ask to see either Jenny or Steve to check if they were alright.

Roy's hands crumbled the police reports he was reading, his hands curling into fists as he looked up, momentarily unable to continue reading the police reports dealing with the obvious domestic violence happening in the home. It was easier to take the word of the perpetrator rather than go through all the hassle and paperwork that came with making an arrest. *

Drawing a deep breath to calm himself, he placed the reports back down onto the file and carefully smoothed them out before he forced himself to read on. After each police visit to the home, peace appeared to reign again for several weeks in the Keller home before the next call from neighbors would send the police back again. Chewing on his bottom lip, Roy tiredly rubbed his eyes before squinting against the harshness of the fluorescent lights that now lit up the bullpen as he wondered if the violence had really stopped during those weeks or if Steve's mother had fled with Steve, only to return a few weeks later, swayed by the flowers, sweet whispers of how much Brian loved her and Steve, and the broken promises that things would be better, that Brian had changed.

Picking up the thickest and what appeared to be one of the last reports on the domestic violence that appeared to be a constant occurrence in Steve's childhood, Roy froze. The police sergeant who attended the home described the horror of dealing with the aftermath of Brian's rage after he and Jenny had argued over his drinking and the fact that he had gambled and lost all the money they had to pay not only for rent, but for food for the week as well. Brian had not only beaten his wife, but he had thrown his son bodily across the room and into the wall when Steve had tried to protect his mother from another beating. Steve had suffered a moderate concussion, broken ribs and severe bruising, not only to his back but to his face and arms as well and had spent the next two weeks in hospital, recovering from the vicious assault.

The hospital staff had told the officer that this was not the first time Steve had been admitted to the hospital with suspicious injuries. His hospital file was thick with admissions to the hospital with questionable injuries during his childhood that had always been explained away as childhood injuries by his frightened and often bruised and injured mother or his 'over-caring' father who seemed concerned that he had such a clumsy child.

No wonder why Mike was so protective of the younger man Roy thought sadly, wishing he had known a little more of Steve's background himself instead of learning about it now.

But it was the last time police were called to the family home after Steve's mother finally agreed to press charges for against Brian for the assaults both on Steve and herself before she moved Steve and herself out of the family home and never returned there with Steve.

Brian had pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and had apologized to his wife and son, claiming that he loved them dearly and had blamed his drinking. He swore to the judge that he would get stop drinking and gambling and make it up to his family if he was given a second chance by the court. His pleas fell on deaf ears after the judge had read Steve's hospital reports and Brian had been sentenced to one year in jail. Just one of the many times he had served time according to his rap sheet as Roy quickly glanced through the three pages of various charges ranging from drunk and disorderly, to several arrests and time served for assault and assault with a deadly weapon, also several convictions for DUI and the final charge of gross vehicular manslaughter for the accident where he had finally killed his wife. Slowly closing the file, Roy found himself wondering why Jenny had even been in the car with him and if the accident was really an accident at all.

Roy pushed away the file in disgust as he remembered the call he had gotten from Personnel, only a few short hours ago after Brian's unexpected visit to confirm the news reports about Steve's death. According to Elaine in Personnel, Brian had gone directly to their office, inquiring about any death benefits that might come from the department to be paid to Steve's next of kin. His son's body had not even been formally identified yet and Brian was already looking for a way he could get his greedy hands on Steve's life insurance and police death benefits.

He jumped in surprise as he heard a knock at the door, and looked up to see Charlie standing there, a small smile on the forensic scientist's face as Charlie tightly clutched a small evidence bag in his hand. Blinking in surprise as he glanced at his watch and realized it was now past ten, Roy briefly wondered why Charlie was still here as he waved his hand, inviting Charlie to enter.

Opening the office door, Charlie's smile grew wider as he asked, "What color shirt was Keller wearing this morning?"

"What?" Roy asked in confusion as Charlie hurried across to the desk and placed the small bag in front of him.

"What color shirt was Keller wearing when you last saw him this morning before he was involved in the accident?"

Trying to remember the tiny detail of what shirt Steve was wearing, what seemed a lifetime ago, before he had left the office to go and interview Anderson, Roy frowned as he looked up at Charlie, "His brown check stripped shirt, I think, as well as a brown tie and brown suit…"

"That's what I thought. He was wearing that when he dropped into the lab on his way out of the station, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't mistaken." Charlie grinned excitedly.

"I don't understand, what's so important of what shirt Steve was wearing?" Roy's frown deepened with confusion.

Nodding at the small plastic bag that contained a small yellow square of singed material, Charlie's grin grew, "Cause the driver of Keller's car at the time of the accident wasn't wearing a brown suit or a brown check stripped shirt, they were wearing a yellow shirt. So, unless Keller suddenly got the urge to change into a yellow shirt after leaving here and before the accident, there's a very big probability that it wasn't him driving the car."

Roy's eyebrow rose in surprise as he stared speechless at Charlie before his eyes drifted down to the small evidence bag before he looked back up at Charlie. "Are you sure?" he managed to ask softly.

"Positive," Charlie nodded as he picked up the bag and handed it across to Roy to examine, "The fire was hot and destroyed most of the body and the clothing, but this piece was protected by the flames by both the body and the back of the seat. It's part of the shirt the driver was wearing and as you can see, it definitely isn't from a brown check stripped shirt, nor was there any evidence that the driver was wearing a suit. Nor could I find any evidence of Keller's police badge or gun."

Staring down at the bag in his hand, Roy smiled as he stared at the small piece of material before he looked back up at Charlie who was now grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Thanks Charlie, this is the best news I have had all day."

Charlie nodded before the grin slowly faded and he looked down at the bag containing the material before he looked back up at Roy and frowned, "But if the driver isn't Keller, then, where is he?"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Picking up at the small piece of charred material in the evidence bag that he had asked Charlie to leave with him, Roy felt a surge of hope as he stared at it, turning it over and over in his hand. Steve might still be alive! But Charlie's question nagged at him, if Steve wasn't the driver killed in the fiery crash, when where was he and what had happened to him? And was it possible that Mike's drowning could be connected to whatever was going on? He paused, holding the small plastic bag, momentarily forgotten in front of him, as the thought crossed his mind - If Steve wasn't the driver killed in the accident this morning and his death had been faked, was it possible that Mike's death had been staged as well?

Glancing down at the file Mike had collected on Steve's father, he rubbed his face as he remembered Brian's Keller's fishing expedition to discover if his son was really dead, combined with the man's visit to Personnel to find out how he could collect on Steve's life insurance and police benefits.

Looking tiredly down at his watch, he shook his head, surprised to find it was after midnight, too late to do much more tonight. Picking up the file and the small sealed evidence bag, he slipped them back into the bottom drawer of Mike's desk. He paused and stared at the file as his gut warned him whatever was going on, it somehow involved Brian Keller. Everyone else who had threatened Steve or Mike, or who might want revenge against either, had been very carefully checked out by Lee and the uniformed guys and all had airtight alibis. Pulling the file back out, he placed it back on the desk and opened it again, rubbing his tired eyes before he began to re-read it, wondering if he had missed anything that might give him some sort of clue what was going on and Mike's and Steve's disappearances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *While most courts in the US were opposed to the rights of a husband to physically discipline their wives since the 1870's, wife beating was only made a criminal offence in the United States in 1920 after which it became common for police to attend cases of domestic violence but arrests were rarely made. It wasn't until the women's movement in the 1970's, that wife beating gained attention and the use of the term "Domestic violence" in the modern sense for spousal abuse and violence in the home was used. Domestic violence was finally taken more seriously, with more arrests for domestic violence being made.
> 
> So, the attitude of the Modesto Police in this chapter of responding and not doing anything was the attitude of most officers of that era, thankfully now things have changed. Violence against another person, whether wife, husband, child, parent, grandparent or stranger is never acceptable and should never be ignored.


	7. Chapter 7

Roy groaned and stretched out his arm, trying to swat off the alarm clock as its insistent ringing pulled him from his sleep. Unable to locate the annoying appliance with his groping hand, he reluctantly opened his eyes to find his head resting on the file he had been reading the night before and the insistent ringing that had awoken him was Mike's phone and not his alarm clock. Sitting up, he rubbed one hand over his face, in an attempt to wipe away the last lingering tendrils of sleep as he reached for the phone before grunting, a little huskily at the caller, "Homicide, Devitt," as he glanced around, surprised to see several inspectors already at their desks in the bullpen.

_"Roy, it's Bill."_

Straightening up as he heard his inspector's voice, preparing himself to hear the news that he did not really want to be confirmed yet, Roy snapped a little harsher than he had intended, "Bill, I was expecting you to report in last night, what have you been able to find out?"

_"I spoke to the rangers conducting the search for Mike, they believe that Mike slipped or fell into the river while fishing after the bank beneath his feet collapsed and that this is now a search and recovery mission."_

Roy sighed, his heart sinking as he listened to Bill's report.

_"But…"_

Clutching the phone closer to his ear, Roy asked cautiously "But what?"

_"But I'm not so sure, Roy, I think we could be dealing with something else. I don't think whatever is going on here is just a tragic fishing accident."_

Roy felt his heart miss a beat as he asked cautiously, "Why?"

 _"Well… the rangers believe that Mike when into the water after the bank collapsed under him as he was casting out or already had the line in the water and was reeling in a fish but after I spoke to Mike's fishing companion Eric Leeds, I'm not sure if that scenario is what happened. Eric told me that he left Mike setting up on the bank of the river while he returned to the cabin about fifty yards up the trial to make some sandwiches and some hot drinks. When he returned, he found the chair Mike had been sitting toppled over, the fishing rod laying half in the water, and it was evident that the edge of the bank had broken. It was then that he saw Mike's fishing hat floating away in the water and he contacted the rangers after conducting his own quick search along the river bank for Mike."_ Roy heard Bill hesitate a moment before the younger man rushed on, _"But get this, Eric said there was one thing that confused him. Mike's line had not been cast out when he had found the fishing rod, it was still wound on the reel and there was no bait on the hook at all. In fact, he said it looked like their bait in the bucket had not been touched, the filleting knife they were going to use to cut the bait up was still clean…"_

"Bit hard to fish if you don't bait the hook or cast it out." Roy mused softly.

 _"That's what I thought,"_ Bill agreed, _"but there's more. Eric remembered late last night that when he left the cabin to return to where he had left Mike to set up, that he heard the sound of a car driving away at a high speed, or as fast as someone can drive on the little-used track that leads out to the three isolated cabins along that stretch of the river."_

"Did he manage to get a look at the car?"

_"Afraid not, the cabin Mike and Eric were staying in is set well back from the track, too many trees to even see where the track is, no way anyone could see a car driving along it."_

"Okay Bill, let's treat this as a possible abduction. All cars have to register at the ranger's station before entering the park, I want to know what cars registered to enter the park yesterday and left the park a few hours later and I want them checked. I also want any empty cabins checked as well, in case they decided to hide out in the park until the heat dies down."

_"That's a lot of cars and cabins to check."_

"I know. Get together with the Yosemite Police Department and with the rangers, tell them that we are investigating the possible abduction of two San Francisco Homicide officers. That this is the only possible lead we have so far to find them."

 _"Two?"_ He heard the confusion in Bill's voice, even over the tinny sounding connection.

"Charlie believes Steve wasn't the driver of the car. So, Steve's missing as well." Roy told him quietly, hearing Bill's sigh of relief as he ordered gruffly, "So, get to it, have the rangers continue their search just in case we are wrong but let's go on the belief that the evidence is beginning to point that we're not. We need to find answers and find them fast, Bill, I have the feeling whatever is going on, time's running out for Mike and Steve."

 _"On it, Roy!"_ Bill acknowledged the order before he hung up.

Slowly hanging up the phone, Roy sighed with a combination of relief and frustration. So, there was a very real possibility that Mike was also alive, but it left them two bigger questions. If Mike and Steve were both alive, then just who had set up this ruse and grabbed them? And why?

His eyes drifted down to the open file which he had fallen asleep while reading. Brian Keller. Roy looked up and stared into the bullpen, lost in thought. The co-incidence of him showing up almost immediately after Steve's 'accident', wanting to confirm his son's death and then approaching Personnel to try and find out when he would be paid Steve's life insurance and police death benefits on the assumption that he had been listed as Steve's next-of-kin, and then the discovery that Mike had been investigating the man was far too great to ignore. He had not found anything in the file, so far, that Mike had collected that he could connect with the two disappearances but everything seemed to swirl around Steve's father. He was sure there was something he was missing, but what?

Flicking the file open, he searched for the information he needed before he picked up the phone. Maybe Keller's parole officer could tell him more about the man than the information Mike had collected while investigating Brian Keller could. Glancing down at his watch, he hesitated when he realized it was only 6 am. It was too early to call Keller's parole officer at his office but perhaps he could reach the man at home. Looking back down at the file, he searched for the home phone number of the P.O. that he had noticed Mike had jotted down in earlier notes in the file. Finding the number, he was searching for, he picked up the phone and began to dial.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Groaning as he rolled over, Brian slowly opened his eyes and blearily scanned the unfamiliar bedroom. It took several long seconds before he was able to think through the all-too familiar fuzziness of a hangover to remember where he was and why. Flopping back onto his back, he stared up at the ceiling as he swallowed hard and ran a hand over his face, grimacing as the small movement aggravated his headache as a small stab of rare guilt rippled through his soul as he remembered the events of the day before. Steve was dead and he was the reason why.

Biting his lip as he blinked away the tears, although he rarely admitted it to anyone even to himself sometimes, he had loved Steve with all his heart and Steve had, at one time, loved him. But Steve just had never been able to understand why he had to be so tough on him and his mother. He had just wanted to make a man out of Steve and teach him that life was hard and unfair, that any dreams he had would be cruelly ripped away from him and crushed into the dirt. But neither Jenny or Steve had understood that sometimes he needed a drink to escape the reality that his own dreams had been crushed by having to support a wife and a kid that he had never really planned for or even really wanted the responsibility for to tie him down.

The whole situation he had found himself in had been made worse by Jenny's refusal to understand or even try to listen to him when he tried to explain that the next roll of the dice at the games table could land them into a world of luxury, where all their money worries would be behind them. And she wondered why she got hit…

And now, when he finally was able to make the biggest score of his life and set himself up for life, that damn cop, Stone, had ruined everything. That damn cop had not only gotten his kid killed and somehow tipped Quintin off to what he had done, making it almost impossible for him to get away the diamonds… The diamonds!

Panicking, Brain sat upright in the bed, ignoring the wave of nausea and the sickening sensation that his head was about to explode as he swung his feet off edge of the bed and lunged from the bed, tripping noisily on the empty bourbon bottle on the floor as he ran towards his discarded pile of clothes near the door. Dropping to his knees, he quickly grabbed his pants and shoved his hand into the pocket, sighing loudly with relief as he pulled the small soft clothed bag free.

Easing himself down to sit down on the carpet, his hand shook as he fumbled as he clumsily untied the knot tied in the cord that sealed the bag tight before he opened it. Carefully pouring the bag's precious contents into his other hand, he grinned in delight as the brightly shining, carefully-cut diamonds and the more rugged diamond stones tumbled into his hand.

Dropping the empty bag onto the floor, he carefully poured the diamonds from one hand to the other hand over and over again as he laughed. Stone had made it almost impossible for him to get away but the money he would get from Steve's police death benefit and Steve's life insurance, the impossible became possible. All he had to do was lay low until he got the money.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Leaning against the wall with Steve's head resting against his shoulder, Mike sighed as he glanced down at his watch, surprised to find it was a little after 7 am before he looked back up and looked around the small bare, windowless room again. The only way to escape from the room would be to try and overpower their three captors when the men entered the room but neither he or Steve were in any condition to even try. The nausea and headache that had greeted him when he had regained consciousness, still plagued him and his quick examination of Steve had quickly confirmed Steve's self-diagnosis of a broken arm and several broken ribs. More worrying was the younger man's silence, Steve had fallen quiet after they had discussed their escape options before they had dozed off a few hours ago. He felt Steve shift against him before he heard the younger man wince. "Steve?"

"I'm okay," Steve lied, trying not to moan as his aching ribs protested each breath he took. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the wall, trying to ignore the faint metallic taste of blood in the back of his throat as he sat up a little straighter. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense Mike watching him and he reluctantly opened his eyes again, blinking against the harsh overhead naked hanging light. He sat silently for several minutes before he softly asked the question, he dreaded finding out the answer to, "So how much did you find out?"

"About your childhood and your father?" Mike asked gently.

"Yeah," Steve sigh softly. He had tried hard to put his father and his childhood behind him, preferring to leave the painful past behind. It was not a place he ever wanted to visit again and the guilt of leaving his mother behind without any protection against the man he feared and hated when he had started university tore at his heart. And now, after suffering a nightmare after dozing off during an all-night stake out with Mike, his worst fears were being realized. He had tried to brush off the nightmare as just a bad dream but Mike had known better and had got him to open up, just a little, about his past. And despite him asking Mike to leave his past in the past, he now suspected Mike probably had dug up every painful detail he could discover. Turning his head just enough to look into Mike's compassionate eyes, Steve's heart sunk, realizing that the haunting skeletons in his childhood closet had all come tumbling out for Mike to see. He looked away, unwilling to see the pity appear in Mike's eyes that he had often seen in the nurses' and doctors' eyes each time they had treated him after one of his father's attacks.

"Well, I guess I found out enough to know why you don't want to have anything to do with your father, Buddy boy, and to warn him to stay away from you." Mike answered honestly as Steve turned away to stare at the wall before he added quietly, "And I probably have the same suspicions that you have about your mother's death and if it really was an accident."

Steve was silent for a heartbeat before he took a deep breath, unable to stop the hiss of pain from escaping from between his lips as a sharp pain lanced through his chest. Holding his ribs a little tighter, he swallowed hard and nodded. The pain he felt, each time he thought about what happened that night and how he had failed to protect her, was far more painful than any physical pain that he had or would ever endure. Clearing his throat, he quickly changed the still far too raw and painful subject, finding himself again unable to talk about it, not even to Mike, "You said that the man who grabbed you was dad's cellmate?"

Mike nodded, aware of Steve's desperate attempt to change of the subject as he answered the younger man's question, "Sam Quintin, he was serving time for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He was involved in that armed robbery of the diamond exchange a few years ago."

"Wasn't that the robbery where the three robbers had the shootout with police before two of them were killed and the third escaped?"

"That's the one, Quintin got away with almost a million dollars' worth of cut and uncut diamonds. He was caught a few days later hiding out on a boat in the bay but the diamonds were never recovered."

Steve frowned, "I thought I read that he got twenty-five years to life."

"He did." Mike agreed.

"Then what's he doing out already? Even with parole for good behaviour, he would still have at least fifteen years to serve."

"I don't know, Buddy boy…" Mike answered before he suggested, "Maybe he escaped."

"But why grab us? Unless it's got to have something to do with my…" Steve rubbed his hand over his head, leaving it resting on the back of his neck as he suddenly turned his head in Mike's direction, his eyes wide, "Did you say that the diamonds were never recovered?"

"Never."

"Quintin would have known when he was planning his escape that he would have to lay low and he wouldn't be able to go for the diamonds himself." Steve mused softly to himself.

Mike nodded but stayed silent.

"My father must have gotten Quintin to trust him to get the diamonds for him," Steve breathed, shifting uncomfortably in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure off his injured ribs, "Dad probably saw it as a chance to make some easy money and …"

"He decided to try and double-cross me."

Steve and Mike looked up in surprise, neither had heard the door open or Quintin entered the room.

"Him and your damn partner sitting next to you!" Quintin glared at Mike, his naked hatred of the older cop evident in his eyes as his two partners stepped around him, their own guns trained on the two injured men sitting against the wall. Turning his attention back to Steve, Quinten growled, "Seems like your father and Stone have a real cosy relationship, meeting up after your father's release in a small café where they thought no one would see them to discuss how to rip off my diamonds over a cup of coffee. Only, your father did not seem too happy with your partner's terms. I'm betting that maybe your partner here is a little greedy and wanted more than fifty per cent of the cut but that didn't stop your old man from teaming up with him and ripping off my diamonds."

"You're wrong, Quintin, I didn't know anything about Keller and the diamonds," Mike protested softly as he felt Steve stiffen beside him. "The only reason I met with Keller was to warn him to stay away from his son!"

"Or were you telling him to grab the diamonds and hide until you could get them and turn them into cash?" Quintin growled angrily, nodding at his two men to grab Mike and force him to his feet as he continued to angrily rant, his gun pointed at Steve's head. "Now I want my diamonds, Stone, and you're going to take me to where you and Keller have them hidden because if you don't, I'm going to blow Stevie-boy's brains out all over this room and then I will go after your daughter."

"Wait, he doesn't know where the diamonds are," Steve protested, surprising not only Quintin but also Mike. He squeezed Mike's arm, silently begging for Mike's co-operation and silence before he slowly struggled up onto his feet. Clutching his aching ribs with his good hand as his broken arm, that had slipped out of Mike’s sling, dangled painfully down at his side, he stepped unsteadily in front of Mike as the three men watched him closely, "But I do."

The two men stopped and glanced uncertainly at their boss as Steve took a small step forward and stood protectively in front of his friend as Quintin stared at Steve and laughed, "You?"

"Think about it, why would my father need a cop to pick up the diamonds? And if he did, do you really think my father is stupid enough to approach a cop he doesn't know, especially a cop who has over thirty years on the force and is his own kid's partner, to help him steal some diamonds from you?" Steve forced a small chuckle and shook his head, his face paling from the dizziness that the small movement caused. Swaying unsteadily, he forced himself to ignore the dizziness that was threatening to topple him as he stared challengingly at Quintin and continued, "Especially when he already has a cop in his pocket, a cop who has all the world believing he hates him, and when that same cop is his own kid."

"Steve!" Mike gasped, horrified as he realized what Steve was attempting to do.

Glancing back over his shoulder at Mike, aware that Quintin was watching him closely, Steve shrugged, "I'm sorry Mike, I guess you were wrong about me after all, we both know from the job that the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree." Turning back to face Quintin, Steve sighed, "Stone was telling you the truth about the reason why you saw him with my father, he really was just trying to protect me by warning dad to stay away from me. But what he didn't know was dad had already contacted me…"

"Steve, no!"

"He told me about you, the robbery and how… how you were going to escape and flee with the diamonds you had hidden before you were caught." Steve paused breathlessly and closed his eyes as he prayed hard that he wouldn't pass out as he swayed unsteadily on his feet. Taking as deep a breath as his aching ribs allowed him to, he forced himself to go on, ignoring Mike. "Dad laughed about how stupid you were in… trusting him to get the diamonds for you …and… and how it was going to set him up for the rest of his...no, set the both of us up for our lives."

"Steve …" Mike tried desperately again as he began to struggle to rise to his feet, using the wall for support as a wave of dizziness washed over him, ignoring the two guns that were turned towards him and aimed directly towards his chest.

Quintin remained silent as he eyed the young inspector sceptically, ignoring Mike's soft pleas to Steve as Steve stepped unsteadily a little closer, "But he needed somewhere to hide them until he could get away… and where better… than with his kid who…is a cop…" Steve swallowed hard, uncertain if he was going to be able to stay on his feet long enough to pull this off but aware that if he was going to be able to give Mike any chance of being able to get out of this mess his father had dragged them into, he needed to draw Quintin and hopefully one of his goons away. Licking his lips as he continued to ignore Mike's pleas, he continued, "So if you want the diamonds back then ... I guess you have no choice than to believe I am telling you the truth... 'cause if you believe Mike was dad's partner, you're never going to get them back." Steve waited a heartbeat as he could see Quintin think about what he had just told him before he added quietly." I have something you want, and you... have something I want, so why not make a trade, ... I'll ... I'll take you to get the diamonds back but only … only if you let Mike go or no deal."

"Diamonds first, Keller, and then we might have a deal." Quintin growled, aiming his gun back towards Mike's chest in a silent order for Mike to sit back down and not make any sudden moves before he nodded at his two men to grab the young inspector and take him out of the room. Waiting until Mike slowly slid back down to the floor before he too began to back away, his gun never wavering from Mike's chest as he did.

Stepping through the doorway, Steve drew a deep breath to brace himself against the pain before he suddenly threw himself against the man beside him, slamming the man's head hard against the door frame. Turning as the man slumped unconscious to the floor, he lunged at the man behind him, body slamming the man to the floor. Crying out in pain as he felt his ribs shift under the hard impact and his broken arm hit the ground, he gritted his teeth and blinked hard, refusing to give up as he desperately fought, one handed, for possession of the gun.

Sitting against the wall, Mike looked up in surprise as he heard the commotion at the door and saw Quintin swing around and aim his gun at the two struggling figures on the floor near the door. Pushing off the wall, Mike sprung up and tackled Quintin around the waist, knocking him to the floor, heavily winding the much larger man as the gun was knocked from Quintin's hand and skidded across the room, out of both of their reach.

Scrambling to his feet, he cast a quick glance towards the gun debating whether to make a try to get it but before he made a move towards it, he heard Steve cry out in pain. Turning back towards the doorway, he saw Steve was quickly losing the unfair fight as the younger man was being pummelled. Knowing Steve was risking everything in an attempt to give them their only chance for escape, Mike ran across the room to where Steve was now pinned to the ground, still refusing to release his one-handed hold on the gun. Behind him, Mike heard Quintin roll over as the man struggled up onto his hands and knees, cursing them both and without a second thought, he raised his foot and kicked Steve's assailant as hard as he could in the head. Reaching down as the man groaned and toppled to the side beside Steve, Mike quickly snagged his partner's arm and pulled Steve roughly up onto his feet as he heard Quintin breathlessly get to his feet and lurch unsteadily towards the gun he had dropped when Mike had tackled him.

Wrapping Steve's uninjured arm around his shoulders, Mike quickly snaked his other arm around Steve's back, staggering a little as the younger man stumbled over the third captor's motionless body in the doorway of the room where they had been held. Moving as fast as he could while keeping a tight hold around Steve's waist, Mike got them both out of the small room and headed towards the front door.

Reaching the cabin door, he yanked it open as gunshot reverberated through the small cabin a millisecond before he felt the wind from the bullet as it passed close to his head and lodged in the door frame beside him.

"Take another step and my next shot won't miss!" Quintin warned coldly as he stood in the other doorway, his gun aimed squarely at the middle of Mike's back.


	8. Chapter 8

Closing the door to his apartment, Anderson Wellings turned and stared at the door to his neighbor's apartment, he still could not believe that Steve was dead. He had only been young cop's neighbor for a couple of months, but they had quickly become close friends, often sharing a beer after work, commiserating with each other about their jobs or on the odd Saturday night that Steve managed to wangle off, they would hit the nightclubs. He shook his head, still unable to believe that he would never see his friend again as he turned and began to walk down the stairs.

Reaching the shared landing, he hesitated and turned again, frowning to look up at Steve's apartment after hearing a noise coming from within. It sounded like someone was moving around the apartment.

Biting his lip, he hesitated a moment, uncertain of what to do as he stared up at the apartment before he turned and hurried back up to his own apartment to call the police to report that there was a possible intruder moving around inside Steve's apartment.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"Take another step and my next shot won't miss!"

Mike felt Steve freeze beside him as they heard Quintin's chilling threat to them.

Pulling his arm free of Mike's light grip, Steve suddenly turned back towards their captor.

Mike caught a glimpse of the gun, that Steve had been fighting so desperately for possession of, in Steve's hand as the younger man spun around to face Quintin.

Two gunshots rang out, almost simultaneously, before Steve turned and shoved Mike roughly out of the door as he yelled breathlessly, "Run!"

Glancing over his shoulder as he lurched through the door, Mike saw Quintin lying on the floor clutching his shoulder as he yelled at his men to get up and grab them. With one hand pressed against the wet, burning wound in his side, Mike grabbed Steve's arm and pulled Steve back up onto his feet when Steve stumbled and almost fell as they ran towards the safety of the forest that surrounded the small wooden cabin, they had been held in.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slowly hanging up the phone, Roy stared out of the bullpen, deep in thought. Keller's probation officer had confirmed the Keller had been released from prison just two weeks before after being released on parole for good behavior.

The parole officer had told him that after his release, Keller had followed his parole conditions to a tee on release, reporting to him immediately and settling into the halfway house where he was ordered to live as well as finding employment as a busboy in a small restaurant. After faithfully reporting to his parole officer twice a week for the last two weeks, Keller had failed to report yesterday and a quick check this morning of the halfway house and the restaurant where he worked revealed that he had not been seen at either location since yesterday, a clear violation of his parole conditions. But parole officer admitted that after hearing the news reports of the possible death of Keller's son in the fiery car accident, the P.O had decided to give the ex-con a break, after all, he was probably grieving the loss of his son and the last surviving family member that he had left.

So, Keller had disappeared after he had come to the station to confirm his son's death. Roy frowned as his suspicion grew that whatever had happened to Mike and Steve, Brian Keller was involved right up to his neck.

"Roy."

He jumped in surprise as he was pulled abruptly from his thoughts and he found himself staring at Lee standing in the doorway.

"We just got a report that there is a possible break and enter into Steve's apartment. Steve's neighbor called it in, he believes the intruder is still there. Uniforms are already rolling…"

Jumping up, Roy grabbed his jacket as he headed out the door and across the bullpen as Lee followed him, ordering over his shoulder as he moved through the bullpen, "Tom, radio the responding units, tell them that they are not to move in until I get there."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Struggling to his feet, clutching his shoulder, Quintin ignored the warm blood that trickled between his fingers as he staggered to the door, reaching it just in time to see the two cops flee into the forest with his two men following closely behind and to hear Davids shout to Yates. "Come on, they went this way!" as they disappeared into the forest.

Hesitating a moment to look back over his shoulder at his wounded boss standing in the doorway of the cabin, watching them, Yates turned and followed Davids as he asked a little sceptical, "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'm sure!" Davids growled over his shoulder at his partner, as he leaped over a fallen tree, "Now hurry up before they get away."

"I don't know why Quintin trusted Keller in the first place," Yates puffed breathlessly as he climbed over the tree and begun to follow his partner deeper into the forest, "Even when he was in the joint, the guy was nothing more than a no-good drunk who was only interested in what he could rip off for himself."

"I don't know why either and I ain't going to ask, but what I do know is Keller is a dead man when Quintin finds him and so are his kid and the other cop," Davids panted as he paused and looked around, searching for some signs that the two wayward cops had come this way.

"Do you think the kid's really in on stealing the diamonds with his old man like he said he was or do ya think Keller teamed up with his partner?" Yates frowned.

"Look, Yates, I don't know, and I don't care. All I care about is my split. But I do know if we don't find Keller's kid and his partner fast, they won't be the only ones who will end up dead. So, come on, man, stop flapping your jaw and help me find them. The boss ain't too happy that we let them got away."

"It wasn't my fault; Keller's kid took me by surprise," Yates sighed.

"Yeah, I know. The kid's got more guts and spunk in him than him than his father has ever had," Davids answered distractedly as he continued to scan the forest.

Yates sighed again as he looked around at the trees and ferns that surrounded them, "You don't think that they can really get away, do ya, Bobby? I'm sure the boss managed to hit the older…"

Ignoring his partner's inane chattering, Bobby Davids froze as he found himself staring at several wet burgundy spots on one of the fronds of a large fern. Hurrying across, he wiped the tacky wet spots with his finger before lifting his finger closely and looking at the red stain in the dim forest light. He grinned as he suddenly took off under the undergrowth, leaping over ferns and fallen logs, leaving his surprised partner to follow, as he yelled excitedly over his shoulder, "I found blood drops, they're this way. One of them's bleedin'. They can't have gotten too far."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Stumbling, for what felt like the hundredth time, over another tree root, Steve sunk to his knees, unable to catch his breath. He felt Mike try and lift him back to his feet and he weakly pushed the older man's hands away as he shook his head. "I…I can't, Mike, … I…I can't run anymore."

"Come on, Steve, just a little bit further." Mike softly tried to encourage him, reaching for his arm again, ignoring the pain that flared in his own side, sending white hot shards of pain through his side as his injured muscles protested at the movement and he felt the warm sensation of blood trickling down his side. Hearing the distant sound of running feet and voices drawing closer, he grabbed Steve's arm and started to lift him up again as he whispered urgently, "Come on, Buddy boy, we have to get out of here."

Drawing as deep a breath as he could into his burning chest, Steve shook his head again as he pulled his arm free, "I … I can't,” he whispered breathlessly, blinking away the dark spots that danced in his vision. Pushing the gun, he still held tightly, into Mike's hand, he tried to push Mike away as he begged, "Take this and go…Get out of here, Mike, … while you… still have a chance, …Leave me here…"

"No way, Steve, there's no way I'm not going to leave you…" Mike protested vehemently as he again grabbed Steve's arm and pulled Steve roughly up onto his feet as he heard someone's muffled shout, "I found blood drops, they're this way!"

"Damn it, … Mike, what… are you doing?" Steve frustrated gasp ended in a choking cough as Mike wrapped his arm around his shoulder and held it tightly, refusing to let it go. Steve struggled to get free from Mike's hold. "I told you… to get…out of…here," Steve sobbed desperately as Mike's hold on him tightened.

"And I told you that I am not going to leave you behind, Buddy boy," Mike told Steve firmly. Gritting his teeth, with one hand gripping Steve's arm that was encircling his shoulders as his other hand, clutching the gun Steve had given him, wrapped around Steve's waist, supporting him and holding him up as the younger man faltered and stumbled with each step, Mike headed deeper into the thick undergrowth as the sound of voices and running footsteps from somewhere behind them drew closer.

Struggling to stay on his feet as he fought for each small breath, he was able to pull into his tortured lungs, Steve gave up fighting and tried his best to keep up with Mike as they began to run again through the undergrowth.


	9. Chapter 9

"I heard the news on the radio yesterday about Steve being killed in the car accident. I just couldn't believe it, we had a couple of drinks together on Saturday night, he was telling me about a girl he was going to ask out." Anderson told Norm as Roy and Lee climbed out of the car and hurried across to join them, continuing after Norm had made the introductions and asked him to go on, "But then this morning as I was leaving for work, I heard someone moving around in Steve's apartment."

"Are you sure they are still inside?" Roy asked, glancing up at the apartment that Lee had pointed out when they had arrived was Steve's.

The young man nodded as he turned and looked up towards Steve's apartment, "There's no back door and it's a pretty steep drop for anyone trying to escape from one of the back windows, and I have kept an eye out on the front but so far no one has come out, so whoever it is, they are still in there."

"Thanks." Roy gently slapped the young man on the back as he nodded at Norm to take Anderson to safety before they entered the apartment.

Waiting until Norm had moved the young man away, Roy waved across to the two other uniformed officers who were standing silently next to their patrol car for orders to join him. Turning, he quickly led Lee and the two officers cautiously up the stairs to Steve's apartment.

Standing next to the uniformed officer, on one side of Steve's apartment door, while Lee and the second officer took their position on the other side, Roy listened closely, unable to hear any sound of movement coming from within the apartment. Unholstering his gun, Roy gave a single nod as a silent order for the officer to kick open the door.

The officer turned and raised his foot, kicking the door as hard as he could, causing it to crash open with a bang before rushing in, his gun ready for any confrontation as he yelled "Police!"

Quickly following the officer into the apartment, Roy looked around the empty living room, glancing at the empty bottle of bourbon sitting on the coffee table and broken glass that littered the floor next to the far wall as Lee and the second officer entered and moved across to the kitchenette, checking that the intruder had not taken refuge behind the breakfast bar. Lee silently shook his head as the other officer headed towards the closed bathroom door.

Moving across to the partially closed bedroom door, Roy paused a moment as he heard movement inside. Gripping his gun tighter as he looked across at Lee and pointed towards the room and raised one finger to indicate that he had heard someone inside the room. Lee nodded silently he hurried across to back up Roy. Holding up three fingers, Roy counted down before he kicked the door open, going in high as Lee went in low.

Brian looked up as he heard the apartment door smash open and heard someone yell 'Police!'. Dropping the diamonds back into their small leather bag, he quickly turned and pushed the bag as far as he could beneath the mattress of the bed. Turning back towards the partially closed bedroom door, he rose to his feet and lifted his arms, interlocking his fingers behind his head. Turning around towards the faced the bed, automatically assuming the position to be frisked and handcuffed by one of the two armed officers who had just entered the room as he looked back over his shoulder and protested, "Hey, what the hell is going on? What the Hell do you think you are doing?"

"Investigating a report of a 'Break and Enter' into one of my missing officer's apartment!" Roy growled as Lee began to frisk and handcuff Steve's father and read him his rights.

After covering Lee with his gun until Brian was securely handcuffed, Roy reholstered his gun and tilted his head in a silent order to the officer standing behind them to move Brian out of his way as he walked across to the side of the bed and lifted up the mattress, searching for the object that he thought he had seen Brian quickly shove beneath it as they had entered the room. His search was rewarded when he saw a small leather bag laying on the base of the bed. Reaching down, he picked up the small but surprisingly heavy bag and opened it up before emptying some of its contents into his hand.

Roy stared in surprise as a large assortment of uncut stones and what appeared to be cut diamonds tumbled out of the bag into his open hand. Looking back up at Lee and the uniformed officer, he saw the same shocked looks on their face that mirrored his own face. His eyes drifted across to Keller who appeared to be totally focused on the diamonds he now held in his hand with a hungry look in his eyes.

It was obvious to everyone in the room that nothing else mattered to the man, not even his missing son, as Brian licked his lips greedily, watching every diamond drop from Roy's hand as Roy carefully poured them back into their bag.

After tying the bag closed, Roy looked up and struggling to keep the disgust he was feeling for Steve's father from leeching into his voice, he ordered coldly, "Get him out of here! NOW!"

After watching the uniformed officer grab Brian's handcuffed arm and roughly lead him out of the room, Lee turned to look back at his lieutenant and asked softly, "What did you mean just then by 'one of your missing inspectors'?"

Looking back at Lee, Roy frowned in total confusion, "What?"

"Just then when you arrested Keller, you said that you were investigating the reported break and enter into the apartment of one of your 'missing' officers' apartments." Lee told him, his own brow creasing. "I mean, we both know that Steve's not missing, he's …" Lee swallowed hard, still finding it hard to believe that both Mike and Steve were gone, let alone admit it out loud.

Realizing that in his rush to get to Steve's apartment that he had not yet told Lee or any of his other Homicide inspectors of Charlie's discovery of the fragment of material that indicated that Steve had not been the driver who been killed in the fiery crash involving his car. Nor had he told them about the contradicting evidence at the scene where Mike was believed to have fallen into the river in Yosemite park and drowned. It was something that he realized that he owed the guys and needed to do as soon as he got back to Bryant Street.

Unable to stop the smile from appeared on his lips, he told Lee, "No, there were developments in the case late last night that I haven't had a chance to tell you or any of the other guys about. But just then when I told Keller that Steve and Mike are 'missing', that's what I meant. I believe that both Mike and Steve have been abducted, not killed." The smile slipped from his lips as he looked at the door through which Keller had been led as he added, "And I also believe that Brian Keller is somehow involved in this mess up to his neck." Reaching up and gently placing a hand on his stunned inspector's shoulder, Roy steered him towards the door as he continued, "Come on, I will fill you in on all the details on our way back to the station."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Glancing quickly towards the man sitting alone in the integration room, Roy returned his attention back to the file he was re-reading and frowned. There was something he was missing, something that tied Keller, and the diamonds they had found that Keller had tried to hide beneath the mattress of his son's bed, to Mike's and Steve's disappearances. He no longer had any doubts that both men were alive.

Flicking over the page, he glanced at the last entry on Keller's rap sheet – Gross Vehicle Manslaughter – for the death of his wife. Roy paused as he stared at the sheet of paper before he slowly looked back up and across at the interrogation room, staring at the man now slouched down in the chair. Of course, why didn't he think of it before? The diamonds had to be the missing link. Turning around, he hurried back into Mike's office and picked up the phone.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"I've been waiting here for an hour!" Brian protested loudly, rising to his feet as Roy entered the interrogation room. "You can't force me to stay here!"

"Sit down!" Roy ordered as he turned and closed the door behind him.

"I'm leaving." Brian continued belligerently, "I know my rights, you can't keep me here without any charges."

"You want me to charge you?" Roy asked, a dangerous edge to his voice as he slowly turned and walked across to the table, deliberately placing the file he was carrying onto it before placing the small brown leather sack on top. Looking back up at Brian who began to head towards the door, he nodded in agreement, "Ok then, I will charge you…"

"For _what_?" Brian demanded as he stopped his egress towards the door and turned back to the Homicide lieutenant.

"For Break and Enter for starters." Roy answered coldly, "And with you already on parole…"

"You can't charge me with break and enter into my own kid's apartment …" Brian protested, his face paling at the threat , staring at Roy as the Homicide lieutenant sat down at the table and turned his head, looking at him expectantly for him to sit down as he added. "My dead son's apartment."

"I can and I will. So, unless you want to find yourself sitting in a holding cell downstairs waiting for your ride back to jail, I would advise you to sit down right now and start answering my questions." Roy warned him softly, ignoring his play for sympathy. He watched Brian hesitate before he barked, "Sit down!"

Running his hand over the back of his head, Brian stared at the lieutenant for a few heartbeats as he realized the man was not bluffing. Reluctantly, he turned and walked back to his chair and slowly sat down.

"Now," Roy began firmly, in no mood for games. He needed answers and needed the answers fast as a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach warned him that whatever this man had gotten Steve and Mike dragged into, time for the two of them was running out fast. "You are going to tell me what you have gotten yourself, your son, and his partner, Lieutenant Mike Stone, into and what the hell is going on."

Slowly looking up at Roy, Brian licked his lips nervously as he shook his head, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"I'm talking about why you were hiding in your son's apartment," Picking up the soft brown pouch that lay on the table between them, Roy untied the knot before tipping the bag and emptied the precious stones onto the table. Watching the other man's face, he saw Brian's eyes greedily light up as the other man stared, mesmerized, at the shiny gems as the lieutenant continued gruffly, "And how you became in possession of almost a million dollars' worth of diamonds! And where my two missing officers, your son and his partner, Lieutenant Stone, are!"

Snapping his head up, Brian stared at Roy, "Your two missing officers? I don't know about Stone, but I do know my son is laying on a slab in the morgue waiting for you cops to get your fingers out and identify him…"

"We no longer believe the body in the morgue is Steve's." Roy interrupted softly.

Staring at Roy in disbelief, not quite daring to believe that Quintin had not carried out his threat, Brian whispered, "He's alive?"

Roy nodded, watching the other man carefully, "But missing and so is his partner, Lieutenant Stone," Removing the pen from his pocket, Roy used the tip of it to move the stones around, never taking his eyes off the other man's face as he took a calculated risk but wasting time was a luxury that Mike and Steve no longer had, as he continued, "And we both know that you... and these diamonds that you stole from Quintin… are the reason why."

Biting his bottom lip, Brian remained silent, but Roy saw the flash of surprise in the other man's face as he began to push, "Look, I know you love your son, even if Steve no longer believes you do. Hell, I'm a man myself, and I do understand that everything between you and Steve and his mother was done because you loved them, and you just wanted the best for them. I also understand that sometimes a man has to show their wives and kids just who's boss, even if they don't understand." Roy lied, sickened by the words that came out of his mouth but desperate to get the other man talking as fast as he could as Brian slowly looked back up at him, as he pushed even harder, "but time is running out for Steve and his partner, especially if Quintin is involved in their abductions, and we both know that he is."

Staring back down at the stones, Brian swallowed hard, wishing that he had a few drinks under his belt for Dutch courage, he hated being sober and being able to feel the guilt caused by his actions as he listened as the Homicide officer outlined his own theory about what he had been involved in.

"Look, Brian, I'm going to lay my cards out on the table straight in front of you. After we found you with the diamonds, I checked your prison records and I know that Quintin was your cellmate. I also checked the robbery report from the diamond robbery that Quintin pulled, and I know that these are some of the diamonds he stole in the heist. And I am willing to bet that you somehow found out where he hid them and decided to take them yourself or maybe, Quintin offered you a cut if you retrieved them and brought them to him when he escaped…" Roy saw Brian freeze in his seat and draw in a deep sharp breath of surprise, before he asked softly, "That's it, isn't it? You were supposed to retrieve the diamonds for him after he escaped and as a reward, he claimed he was going to give you a share. So, if the diamonds were a reward, then what was the punishment if you decided to rip him off? Was it Steve's life?" He paused and stared at the other man as Brian flinched and looked away. The horror of what the other man had risked in his greed was almost overwhelming and Roy lowered his voice in a mixture of horror and disgust as he continued, "It was, wasn't it? Quintin knew you had a son; he probably even knew that Steve was a cop and threatened you with Steve's life if you crossed him. But even knowing Steve's life was on the line, you couldn't help yourself, you got greedy and you crossed him anyway."

"It wasn't like that!" Brian protested loudly, angry that he was being accused of being greedy.

"Then tell me why?" Roy roared, slamming his hands hard on the table, causing several of the Homicide inspectors working at their desks in the bullpen to jump in surprise and turn to look at what was happening inside the interrogation room.

"I did it for Steve as well," Brian yelled, "I was going to give him half of my share of the diamonds. It was the least I could do for him after what I did to his mother… And I would have gotten away with it, but his damn partner had to stick his nose in where it wasn't wanted and ruined everything…"

"Mike Stone?"

"Yeah, Lieutenant Mike bloody Stone!" Brian growled, spitting Mike's name out like a vile curse, his hands curling into fists on the table as he looked up at Roy, his face red with anger, "He's the reason why Quintin went after my son. He's the reason why my son is now missing, not me! He decided to try an act like some big man and after I got out from prison, he tried to threaten to send me back to prison if I tried to contact my own kid! My OWN bloody kid!" Silently agreeing with Mike's actions to try and protect his partner from this man, Roy watched as Keller thump the desk hard with his fist. In that moment, Roy knew that he had just caught a glimpse of Keller's volatile and violent temper that his young missing inspector must have witnessed and been on the receiving end of for years, as Keller continued to rant. "Just who did he think he was, telling me to stay away from my own kid! It's his fault that Steve was grabbed, not mine! One of Quintin's men must have seen us together in that damn cafe…Then yesterday when I heard on the news that Steve had been killed…"

"That's when you realized the Quintin had discovered you had stolen the diamonds?"

Brian nodded in agreement. "I knew that Steve's death wasn't an accident and I knew that I would be next if I didn't get away."

With the pieces of the puzzle sliding quickly into place, Roy frowned, "So you after you came to me to confirm the news reports about your son's death, you went straight down to Personnel to ask about his death benefits and life insurance."

"Steve was dead, I couldn't change that, and I was next. So I needed money to get away with the diamonds," Brian admitted as he looked back down at the shiny stones, "but the girl in Personnel told me it would take several days for any payments to come through and I needed somewhere to hide until it did."

"So, you decided the best place to hide was in your son's apartment?"

Brian sighed, "Yeah but what I didn't bank on was not only did the kid have a nosy partner, but he had nosy neighbors as well."

"So how were you supposed to deliver the diamonds to Quintin, once you retrieved them?" Roy asked.

"Quintin was going to get in contact with me about where and when to deliver them. I guess he didn't trust me enough to tell me where he was hiding." Brian shrugged as he looked down at the diamonds before he reached across and picked one up, turning it over and over again between his fingers as he stared at it. Slowly he placed the diamond back down on the table before he looked back up at Roy and asked softly, "Do you really think there is a chance that Steve is still alive?"

Roy nodded.

"I know you probably heard all the stories from Steve about how I treated him and his mother." Brian sighed, running his hand over his head as he looked past Roy's shoulder and stared at the wall. "But as you said, he didn't understand why I had to do the things I did or why I had to hit them. I know that you probably won't believe me when I tell you that I really did love him and his mother but sometimes they made me so angry… they would disrespect me and would deliberately defy me until I snapped and hit out. It wasn't my fault, it was theirs! All they had to do was give me the respect that being the head of the family deserves!

But even though Steve doesn't believe me, I really did love them, I still love them…" Brian voice trailed off as he glanced greedily down at the diamonds again before he looked back up at Roy hopefully, "Listen, there's a chance that I might know where Quintin is holding my kid and his damn partner but first, before I tell you, I want a deal."

"A deal?" Roy asked, momentarily shocked, but not really surprised that after Brian had just tried to convince him that he loved Steve and his mother, the man was now trying to make a deal to benefit himself.

Brian nodded eagerly, "Yeah, a deal. You drop the charge of break and entering." Brian smiled as he looked down at the diamonds before he looked back up at Roy, "Do that and we split the diamonds, fifty/ fifty and then let me walk out of here a free man and in exchange, I tell you where Quintin is probably holding my brat and Stone."

"Go on." Roy encouraged the other man softly.

Brian smiled smugly as he leaned back on his seat and looked across the table at Roy. "Quintin told me about a place he had up in the Redwood National Park, some old log cabin, hidden deep in the redwood forest, right off the trail, that not many people know about, not even some of the rangers. He said it was a place where he uses to hide after a job to wait for the heat to die off. I'm betting that's where he is holding Steve now."

"Did he ever say what trail?"

Brian shook his head, "No, just said it's was way off the trail and that not many people even knew it was there, not even the rangers."

"And he said it was in the Redwood National Park not Yosemite? Are you sure?" Roy pushed harder.

"Yeah, he said it was in the Redwood National Park." Brian snapped.

"Thanks, that's all I need," Roy smiled as he quickly gathered up the diamonds, dropping them back into the small bag before he grabbed the file and headed towards the door.

"Hey, what about me and our deal?" Brian yelled as he watched Roy hurry out of the room.

Pausing at the door, Roy turned back and looked at him, "Did I say that I agreed to a deal? If I was you, I would start praying that your greed hasn't got either Steve or Mike Stone killed and that we find both alive. Because I promise you, that if anything has happened to either one of them, I will personally be the officer arresting you with their murders and I am sure it won't be hard for me to convince the DA to seek the death penalty.”

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"Hang on Bill, he's just finished with the interrogation now." Lee told the inspector on the other end of the phone before holding up the phone down as he looked across the bullpen and waved Roy across as the lieutenant walked out of the interrogation room, "Phone call for you, Lieutenant, it's Tanner and he says he may have something."

Veering from heading towards Mike's office, Roy hurried across to Lee's desk and grabbed the phone, snapping a little more harshly than he intended as his anger from the interview with Keller spilled over, "What have you got for me, Bill?"

_"Maybe our first real break in Mike's disappearance, Roy,"_ Bill answered as he glanced across at the young ranger sitting across from the desk from him. _"I spoke to one of the rangers who was on duty when Mike and Leeds signed into the park, he said Mike and Leeds arrived at the park late on Saturday night and that a second car containing two men signed in a few minutes later. He remembers the men and the second car because he was on a quick shift after signing off duty at ten, Saturday night, and was back on duty at six, Sunday morning, and thought it was strange when the second car left the park early in the morning. He remembered because he thought it was strange that the men only stayed overnight and then appeared to be in some sort of a hurry when they left the park. The ranger said that they were speeding so fast, that they fishtailed as they went through the gates and almost caused an accident."_

"Have you got a description of the car and the men?"

_"It was a light blue Rambler 1970 station wagon, California license plates- 5UMG719. I've already done a check and it was reported stolen from San Francisco about a week ago."_ Roy sighed loudly and turned back to stare at Keller who was still sitting in interrogation, waiting for him to arrange someone to take him down to booking and the holding cells as Bill continued, _"But we got lucky, when the ranger described the two men who were driving the car and I recognized one of them by the description- Bobby Davids. I arrested him when I was in uniform, a real nut-job, has a rap sheet as long as your arm. I thought he was still serving his time in San Quintin, but he must have gotten out. He's real trouble, Roy, likes to hire himself out as an enforcer for a fee. He has convictions for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, intimidation, grand theft auto, also suspected in several hits, but we have never been able to get enough evidence to pin the charges on him. So, I had a photo of Davids teletext to the ranger's station and the ranger was able to confirm that Davids was one of the men in the car. I've teletext the photo of Davids and a copy of his rap sheet to you, it should be coming through in a minute."_

"Sounds like he was in a hurry after they grabbed Mike." Roy mused.

_"That's what I thought. I've already placed a state-wide APB out on him and the car."_

"What about the second man?"

_"The ranger said that he didn't get a good look at him, he was in the passenger seat, but the ranger thought he could have been in his late 30's, dark hair, maybe had brown eyes and he noticed he had a scar on his left cheek starting just below the eye and ending near the corner of his mouth. Didn't recognize him but I've arranged for the ranger to work with one of the police artists from the Yosemite PD, hopefully, we will get an ID when they're done…"_

"You might not need that sketch."

_"Why?"_

"Because it sounds like one of our suspects in Steve's disappearance- Sam Quintin. He's the link to both disappearances. I am about to send out a state-wide APB on him. I will send you a teletext photo of him, see if the ranger can confirm he was the second man in the car. Then I want you to head back to Redwood National Park, meet me at the ranger's station."

_"Redwood? Why?"_

"We just got some information that Mike and Steve may be being held in a cabin somewhere in Redwood park, not Yosemite."

_"What do you want to do about the search for Mike's body?"_

Roy paused, turning back towards Mike's office before he answered softly "Keep them searching, if this lead we have is a red herring and Mike's disappearance really was an accident and there's a chance that Mike's… if Mike is somewhere in Yosemite, I want him found."

_"Ok, Roy,"_ Bill answered as he heard the click of the call disconnecting in his ear.

Hanging up the phone as he heard the familiar chatter of keys from the teletext machine, Roy hurried across and watched as the black and white photo of the face of Quinten's partner slowly emerged. Ripping it free from the machine, he studied it silently as he waited for Davids' rap sheet to print out, before also tearing the lengthy arrest records and relevant information about Davids free from the machine. Glancing through the info as he walked back across the bullpen, Roy was not surprised to find that David's last jail incarceration was in San Quentin and he suspected most likely in the same cell block as Quintin and Keller.

Placing the grainy photo of Davids into the photocopier, Roy hit start as he found himself once again staring at the man sitting in the interrogation room, still unable to quite believe that this whole nightmare began because of his greed. No wonder why Steve never spoke about the man.

Grabbing the photocopy of the photo, Roy quickly lifted the lid of the machine and snagged the original teletext photo before he hurried into Mike's office and dropped Davids' rap sheet onto the desk. Turning, he grabbed his coat before he headed back to Lessing's desk, pausing only long enough to order, "Get a state-wide APB out on Sam Quintin, if he is spotted, I don't want him approached but he is to be followed and they are to contact me, either by radio or at ranger station at Redwood National Park."

"Will do, Lieutenant." Lee nodded as he reached for his phone.

"Also contact the rangers at the park, tell them that we have two possible kidnap victims being held in an isolated cabin in the park. If they see any unusual activity, I want them to hang back and just observe until I get there, I should be there in about two hours. Under no circumstances are they to tip anyone in the cabin off that the cabin is under surveillance."

"What about Keller?" Lee asked quietly as he cast a quick look towards the interrogation room.

"Book him." Roy growled angrily, glancing over his shoulder towards the interrogation room in disgust before he turned back and looked at his inspector, "Charge him with break and entering, receiving stolen goods, attempted bribery of a police officer, and conspiracy to commit the murder of a police officer for starters. And let him know I will personally be bringing more charges against him when I get back, so he had better start praying I find both Steve and Mike alive and okay."

Lee nodded as Roy turned as he watched his lieutenant turn and hurry out of the bullpen before he dialled headquarters to place the APB.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Mike was unable to stop the gasp of pain as Steve stumbled and they both fell heavily to the ground. Biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from passing out, Mike forced himself back up onto his knees as he tried to keep hold of the gun. Reaching again for Steve, he tried to ignore the agonizing pain that radiated from the wound in his side, flowering out through his torso, leaving him feeling nauseous and lightheaded as the voices and distinct sounds of someone crashing through the undergrowth grew louder and closer … too close.

Snagging Steve's still and silent form under the arms, he murmured, "Come on Buddy boy, just a little bit further," to the limp man as he tried to stand. He cried out in surprise, frustration and pain as his legs suddenly gave out beneath him and they crashed back down onto the ground.

"They have to be close, so shut up and keep an eye out, they can't be too far ahead!"

Lifting his head, Mike stared at the trees just behind them, his heart thumping painfully in his chest as he caught a small flash of yellow through the leaves. Time had run out, there was no time left for them to get away, even if they could run. Holding the gun tightly, Mike reached for his unconscious friend, grabbing Steve around the waist as he bodily threw himself and Steve under the thick ferns that surrounded them before he began to roll desperately trying to get them to safety and out of view. The solid ground beneath them suddenly disappeared and he found himself falling for what felt like an eternity with Steve still held tightly in his arms.


	10. Chapter 10

Sitting on the hard-narrow bunk, Brian pinched his top lip between two fingers as he stared through the bars into the empty cell next to him. He was scared of going back to prison, he was even more scared of going to death row. And if that lieutenant made good on his threats about going to the DA and asking the DA to demand the death sentence if Steve and Stone were dead, then that's where he would be headed, straight to the death house for an appointment with a needle in his arm. It was not the way he wanted to end his life.

And he had no doubts that if Quintin did have the brat and his partner, then all that the lieutenant was going to find was their cold dead bodies.

Hell, it was not the way he planned his life at all! He had planned to go out as a rich, old man, dead from a heart attack while in bed with a young and beautiful woman. And what made this whole situation worse was the fact that he still had enough diamonds hidden away for that to happen.

But that damn cop, Stone, had ruined everything, had ruined all his dreams of living the good life, of maybe even reconciling with the brat. If only Stone had kept his nose out where it wasn't wanted, none of this would have happened.

Hearing the key turn in the barred door that separated the line of individual holding cells from the rest of the world, he turned his head and watched as the holding cell officer made his rounds, checking on each prisoner who was waiting to be bailed out to or waiting go to the court to be arraigned before he turned and walked back to the door.

Glancing up at the clock on the corridor wall across from his cell as Brian heard the familiar metal clang as the holding room cell door slam shut, a small smile tugged at his lips. The officer made his rounds every fifteen minutes like clockwork. Sitting up straight, the small smile grew into a large grin as a plan of how to get out solidified in his mind. He knew there was no way he would be able to slip out of his cell but what about a hospital room? Or a busy ER room? It was so easy, child's play, why didn't he think of it before?

A soft laugh escaped his throat as he imagined that lieutenant's face to hear he had managed to escape. It wouldn't matter then if Steve and his partner were dead because he would be free and long gone, living a life of luxury, maybe not as rich as he had hoped but rich enough to live comfortably. It was just a shame that Steve would never know what he had done.

Glancing back across at the clock, he shook his head. He had to time this right, if he did it two minutes before the guard came back then the odds of them finding him in time was at least five to one, maybe even better, and definitely worth the gamble. They would have to take him to the hospital to get him checked out and once there…

He had less than ten minutes to get prepared. Rising from the bunk, he hurried across to his cell door and tried to look down the corridor, to ensure that there were no officers around. Satisfied that the only ones currently in the holding cells were himself and the drunk who was currently sleeping it off in the drunk tank, he turned and hurried back across to the bunk and picked up the thin blanket. Placing the edge of the blanket between his teeth, he grinded his teeth against the rough material before biting down on it with his teeth, pulling it hard, until he felt the material strain under the double assault and tear a little.

Removing it from his mouth, he paused, his ears straining in an attempt to hear any noises that would indicate the officer was returning or the drunk had awoken and saw what he was doing. The holding cells remained silent and he glanced again at the clock, he had just seven minutes to pull this off. Quickly tearing a long strip from the blanket, he quickly stepped onto the bunk and tied one end to the highest bars that he could reach. Giving the tied piece of material a quick tug, he nodded, satisfied that it would hold before he tied a noose at the other end and placed it around his neck.

Staring at the clock, he could feel the fear and the adrenaline rush he felt each time he rolled the dice as he watched the minute hand slowly tick down to the two-minute mark. Drawing a deep breath as the second hand finally hit twelve, he rubbed his hand nervously over the back of his head, praying this time the odds would finally work for him. If this worked as he planned, he would be free and a very rich man.

Taking a last deep breath, Brian stepped off the bunk and the noose tightened tightly around his neck, leaving him gasping for air as he slowly began to strangle, his feet kicking violently just inches off the ground as the world around him slowly, and painfully, faded away.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slamming onto the hard-unforgiving ground knocked the breath out of him and ripped Steve from his tight hold, Mike continued to roll and slide uncontrollably down the steep embankment, unable to stop himself from crying out in pain as his body bounced off the large jagged rocks and unforgiving tree trunks until a large boulder stopped his tumble. Blinking back the darkness that beckoned him into its soft, pain-free embrace, he tried to ignore the pain that seemed to emanate from very part of his battered body. He tried desperately to draw air into his aching lungs as he blinked and found himself staring up through the thick ferns and underbrush that cast the light into a twilight aura. He thought he could hear muffled shouts and the sounds of snapping branches and running feet somewhere far above him.

Gritting his teeth tightly, he slowly and carefully eased himself up a little in an attempt to see where Steve was. He was unable to stop the loud gasp of pain as the small movement reignited the pain in his side, his gasp turned into an agonized groan as white-hot shards of agony suddenly erupted down his leg. He grabbed the injured limb, holding it tightly as he dropped back down onto the ground, his face turned towards the ground as the beckoning darkness pulled him into its pain-free cocoon.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"There's another drop of blood, come on, hurry up! They can't be too far ahead!" Bobby Davids yelled as he crashed through the underbrush, following the larger burgundy drops that stained the broken fern fronds or had splashed onto the ground. His excitement grew with the knowledge that Stone was now bleeding heavily and he doubted that Keller would be in any condition to run much further, he had broken the kid's arm and a couple of his ribs when they had grabbed him. "Come on will ya! Hurry up!" he shouted again, looking over his shoulder a moment before the ground beneath him suddenly disappeared. "Shit!" he screamed as he found himself tumbling through the air before slamming painfully onto a narrow ledge about halfway down the steep bank that dropped down to the thick undergrowth and visible jagged rocks below.

"Damn it, Bobby," Yates puffed heavily as he trudged wearily behind as the other man ran ahead into the undergrowth in front of him and disappeared from view, "I'm comin' as fast as I can! Ya know I'm not as fast as you," he complained as he pushed through the annoying fern fronds, frowning as he heard Bobby curse a heartbeat before he heard the distinct sound of falling rocks and breaking branches somewhere ahead of him and what sounded like a solid thump and then, silence. "Bobby?" he asked softly as he froze and tried to find which way his partner had just gone. His frown grew as he took a few cautionary steps forward as he called a little louder, "Bobby?... Bobby, where are you?"

Slowing and carefully sitting up, Bobby looked up at the top of the small cliff from where he had just fallen before he looked back down towards the bottom of the small ravine into which he had almost fallen. "Shit!" he muttered again, as he rubbed the back of his neck with a trembling hand as he stared down at the rugged rocks and the thick ferns that hid, God knew what, below.

A soft, low moan close by snapped him out of his shock and he turned and looked around the small ledge where he had landed. He noticed a limp hand poking out from the thick ferns and leaf litter that was piled high against the base of the cliff. Rising unsteadily to his feet, Bobby took a step towards the almost completely hidden body.

"Bobby, where are you? ... Bobby?"

He paused as he heard Yates's yell and looked up towards the edge of the cliff as he yelled. "Down here, I'm down here!" A moment later he found himself staring up into Yates's confused face as the older man stared wide-eyed down at him.

"What are you doing down there?"

"I thought I would like the view down here better than up there!" Bobby growled in annoyance, "What the Hell do you think I'm doing down here? I fell, you big baboon, and so did the two cops."

"Are you sure?" Yates's frown deepened as he edged closer to the edge and looked down.

"Of course, I'm sure!" Davids growled as he slowly limped across to where the cop's body was hidden beneath the leaves, pushing the ferns apart before leaning down and pressing his fingers against the cool flesh on the side of the cop's throat. Feeling the weak thump beneath his fingertips, he looked back up in the direction of the top of the cliff and yelled. "Keller's down here on the ledge with me, he's alive, but Stone must have gone right over the ledge. Now go back to the cabin and get some rope so we can get Keller up off here and back to the boss."

"What about Stone? Shouldn't we look for him?"

Looking back over his shoulder towards the drop just feet away, Bobby shook his head. "Why bother? He's dead! No way he survived a fall like that!" Turning back to look up at the top of the cliff he ordered, "Now do what I told ya to do and get back to the cabin and get some rope!"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Bill Tanner looked up from the map the ranger was showing him as Roy walked into the ranger's station. Straightening up, he quickly made the introductions between the Chief Ranger and the Homicide lieutenant, "Lieutenant, this is Ranger Holland, the chief ranger of the park. Ranger Holland, this is Lieutenant Roy Devitt, San Francisco…"

"Homicide." The ranger finished for him as the taller man looked up and extended his hand towards Roy as he smiled, "Just call me Tony. I understand that you believe that two of your officers may be being held against their wills in one of our old abandoned cabins in the park."

Roy nodded, "We believe that one of the suspects involved in the two officers' kidnappings uses an abandoned cabin in the park as his hideout. The cabin is probably hidden deep in the park, far off the main trails away from any prying eyes _."_

"We have several cabins that would fit that description." Tony told Roy as he returned his attention back to the map laid out on the table and began to point out several different spots on the map as he continued, "As I was telling your inspector, we checked all of the cabins out except for two. They were empty and in no condition to be used as any type of a hideout unless your suspect likes a cabin with no windows and a collapsed roof."

"What about the other two cabins?" Roy asked.

"Both are located in almost inaccessible areas." The ranger pointed to two spots on the map, "I have rangers checking out this cabin, but I doubt they will find anyone," he continued pointing to the nearest cabin. "But I thought I would wait for you to arrive before we checked out the other one. If they are hiding out with your men, I would bet that this is where they are."

"Why?" Roy asked looking up from the map.

"It's the one cabin in the park that only a few of us even knows it even exists," Tony answered as he glanced up at Roy. "It's well camouflaged amongst the trees and is in an area that is not open to the public. The area is too dangerous, with hidden crevices and unstable cliffs, to allow hikers to go wandering around there. Also, the forest there is so thick in that area that if someone did go hiking and managed to get themselves lost, it would take us days to find them, if we were lucky enough to find them at all."

"Sounds like the ideal hideout." Roy murmured as he looked back down at the map and studying the cabin's location before he looked back up at the ranger. "So, let's go."

"Thought you would say that. I have a couple of my rangers waiting outside and some spare hiking gear and boots over there. There should be some boots that will fit you." Tony nodded as he rolled up the map before nodding towards some hiking gear on the table against the wall as he continued as his phone began to ring. "I'll drive us as close to the cabin as I can but it's still going to be a bit of a hike."

"Thanks." Roy nodded as he walked across to the table and picked up a pair of hiking boots, removing his shoes before pulling the heavy boots on as the ranger answered the phone.

"Lieutenant."

He turned back to the ranger as the ranger held out the phone to him.

"It's for you, an Inspector Lessing. He says it's important."

"Thank you," Roy said as he walked across and accepted the phone. "What have you got for us, Lee?"

_"A hit on the APB I put out on the car. It was spotted by a Castro Valley P.D officer about 4 pm yesterday afternoon. He remembered the car because the driver seemed a little jittery when the driver noticed him looking at him. The officer said he was going to have a chat with the driver, but he had to roll on an accident call before he had a chance to do a check on the plates."_

"So, Quintin and Davids were probably headed towards Redwood park with Mike in the car."

_"Yeah."_ Lee agreed quietly.

"Thanks Lee, if there are any more sightings, let me know immediately," Roy ordered.

_"Wait, Lieutenant, there's more."_ Something in his inspector's voice warned Roy that he was not going to like what he was going to hear as Lee continued. _"Brian Keller was found hanging in his holding cell about an hour ago."_

Roy cast a quick glance across at Bill who was now watching him, uncertain if he had heard Lee correctly before he asked, "Brian Keller hung himself? How the hell did that happen? Where the hell was the officer in charge of the holding cell?"

_"Keller ripped up his blanket and tied it around the top bars in his cells before making a noose to hang himself. The officer in charge found him hanging on his rounds and cut him down in time.”_ Lee hesitated and sighed, wishing he was not the one making the call as he added quietly, _"He was taken to San Francisco General where he managed to escape after he was left alone for a minute or two in the x-ray room. I've issued an APB but so nothing."_

Roy's knuckles whitened as his hold on the phone tightened as he turned his back on the other men in the room as he murmured, "Damn!" Taking a deep breath to quickly recover from the shock from the unexpected news of Brian Keller's attempted suicide and escape, he rubbed his face before he ordered, "I want to be kept update and I want a full report of what happened."

" _Understood, Sir,"_ Lee answered as he heard the phone disconnect loudly in his ear.

Turning back to the ranger, Roy accepted the backpack the ranger held out for him. Heading towards the door, he ignored Bill's silent, questioning look as he ordered gruffly, "Let's get going."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Bracing one hand on the car's interior roof above his head to stop his head hitting painfully against it again as the ranger's jeep bounced and slid over the rough, overgrown goat track that the ranger claimed was once a small road that led down towards the isolated and largely forgotten abandoned cabin, Roy groaned as he was thrown against the door before he asked, "How much further?"

"We're almost gone as far as we can go by car, we will have to hike in just after this bend," the ranger answered, jerking the steering wheel hard to steer the jeep around a large tree that had fallen across the rough track before he glanced at the Homicide lieutenant sitting in the passenger seat beside him. "The cabin is still about two miles further in. When we start hiking, I want you and your officer to stay close to me and the other rangers and don't stray off the track. The area is riddled with fern covered deep crevices and steep cliffs that you won't know are there until you step over the edge and the forest is so thick, that it's easy to become disoriented and lose your way just feet from the trail."

Roy nodded as the jeep rounded the corner and any acknowledgement of the ranger's softly spoken order about staying close was forgotten as he found himself staring at a light blue Rambler station wagon, partially hidden at the end of the road by ferns and branches that had been draped over it in an attempt to camouflage it. Climbing out of the jeep as it rocked to a stop, Roy quickly crossed to the partially hidden car as he heard the second ranger's jeep pull up close behind him. He heard the jeep's doors open and close behind him before Bill and the rangers hurried across to join him. Lifting away the ferns that covered the license plate, he murmured, "5UMG719."

"Our stolen car." Bill breathed softly as he looked around the thick forest that surrounded them.

Standing back up, Roy nodded as he looked across at Bill, "So Keller was telling me the truth when he told me about the cabin where Quintin hides out until the heat is off. Let's hope it's also where he's also holding Steve and Mike." Turning back to the lead ranger, he asked, "How long will it take us to get to the cabin on foot?"

The ranger shrugged and frowned, thinking about the question before he answered slowly, "An hour if we are careful, half an hour if we move fast."

"We're going to move in fast. Anything you can tell me about the cabin that might help?"

Scratching his chin, the ranger's frown deepened. "If I remember the cabin correctly, it's nestled in a very small clearing in the thickest part of the forest in this area. It only has one entrance, a front door that faces west, it has two windows also at the front and a small landing. I think it has just two rooms."

"No back door or windows?"

"No," the ranger shook his head confidently, "none."

"Okay," Roy nodded as he turned and looked at the other three rangers who gathered around before firmly ordered, "Once we get near the cabin, we are going to move in nice and low and slowly, I don't want anyone to be spotted. We believe there could be two men, possibly three, who have kidnapped and are holding two police officers against their will. One of those men is an escaped prisoner who is not going to want to return to prison. These men are probably armed and dangerous and they won't hesitate to kill their kidnap victims or anyone else who gets in their way or threatens their freedom. I don't want anyone trying to be a hero, understood?"

"Yes, Sir," the four rangers answered in unison.

"No one moves in until I give the order and then only after myself or Inspector Tanner has moved in." Satisfied as the four rangers nodded their agreement and understanding of the orders, Roy ordered, "Okay, let's get moving!"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Reaching down as he heard Yate's receding footsteps from above, Davids snagged the injured cop beneath the arms and dragged him further out onto the narrow ledge, cursing as the strain of dragging the injured cop hurt the leg he had injured in the fall. Releasing his hold, he allowed the injured cop to unceremoniously drop back down to the ground as a small smile crept onto his lips as the younger man moaned in pain. He shook his head in disgust. If he had his way, he would simply toss the cop over the edge to join his dead buddy below but while the boss believed that one of the two cops knew where Keller and diamonds were, he needed to keep Keller's kid alive. Alive, but not necessarily healthy. Drawing his foot back, he kicked the young man's injured ribs, his smile morphing into a satisfied grin as Keller weakly cried out and rolled over onto his side, gasping for air.

Reaching down, he rolled the young cop onto his back, before yanking him up to a semi-sitting position. He ignored Steve pain-filled gasps as he looked down at cop's battered face and snarled, "You think you're a smart one, don't ya? Just like your no-good father. Thought you could make a fool out of me and Yate's and get away in front of the boss? Well you couldn't! Too bad for you that your little escape attempt didn't work and got your partner killed, cause once I make you tell the boss what he wants to know about the diamonds, and I promise I will make you, I am going to enjoy killing you as slowly and as painfully as I can."

"Go …to …Hell!" Steve's barely audible, defiant breathless whisper ended in a choking cough, as a small stream of blood trickled down his chin and his eyes drifted close.

"That's precisely where ya headed, cop, to join your partner!" Davids smiled coldly, throwing Steve back down against the hard, rocky ground before rising to his feet as he heard the sound of running feet crashing through the thick undergrowth on the cliff above.

"Bobby… Bobby, are you still down there? … Bobby?" he heard his partner call a moment before he saw Yates's red, sweaty face peer fearfully over the edge of the cliff.

"Of course, I'm still down here, ya idiot!" he growled in annoyance. "Where the Hell else did you expect me to be? Did you get the rope?"

"Yeah." Yates nodded, showing his partner the long coil of rope that he held in his hand.

"Good, now drop one end down to me and then wrap your end around the back of the tree to make it easier for you to haul us up."

"Okay," Yates called down as he allowed carefully lowered down enough rope for Davids to use to secure both himself and the cop in preparation for the trip up the steep slope to the top of the cliff above before disappearing from view.

Turning back to the semi-conscious man on the ground, Davids knelt down and grabbed the front of Steve's shirt, yanking him upright into a sitting position before looping the rope around his chest, just beneath his arms before tying it as tightly as he could, enjoying the soft hiss of pain he heard from his captive. Roughly pulling Steve up onto his feet, Davids wrapped one arm tightly around Steve's waist as his other hand grabbed the rope before he dragged the injured cop to the cliff's wall and looked up as he yelled, "You ready?"

"Ready!" Yates answered as he began to pull on the rope helping Davids, carefully climb back up to the top with his heavy, limp burden.

Crawling over the top of the cliff and onto solid ground, dragging the cop beside him, Davids removed the rope around Steve's chest before standing up as Yates dropped the rope he was holding and ran across to the two men.

"He ain't looking too good," Yates whispered as he looked down at the now unconscious man on the ground, staring at the ashen, bruised and scraped face and the lips tinged with blue and the small stream of blood that trickled out of the side of the cop's mouth.

"Tough!" Davids shrugged as he leaned down and hoisted the unconscious man up onto his feet. Quickly wrapping one of Steve's arms around his shoulder, holding it with bone bruising intensity, Davids started to drag Steve through the forest, "Who cares? Just as long as he lives long enough to tell us where his no good, worthless father is and where he has hidden the diamonds! Now are you going to give me a hand or are you just going to stand there?"

"Ah yeah, sorry Bobby. I'm coming." Yates said as he ran to catch up, grabbing Steve's other arm as he helped Davids drag the unconscious man back towards the cabin where their boss was waiting for them.


	11. Chapter 11

"Of course, I'm still down here, ya idiot! Where the Hell else did you expect me to be? Did you get the rope?"

"Yeah."

"Good, now drop one end down to me and then wrap your end around the back of the tree to make it easier for you to haul us up."

"Okay."

The voices from somewhere above greeted Mike as he slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the hard ground surrounded by ferns that cast an eerie green light around him. He blinked in confusion as he found himself staring at a small spider as it meticulously weaved its fine web between the fern fronds, momentarily uncertain of where he was or even how he had gotten there.

"You ready?"

The familiar shout from somewhere above caught his attention again and he shifted slightly in an attempt to look up through the green leaves above him. He swallowed a scream of pain that threatened to tear from his throat as the small movement reignited the agony in his side and his broken leg as the memory of what had happened during the last twenty-four hours washed over him like a tsunami.

Blinking back the tears that blurred his vision, he tried to rise slightly to see what was happening as he heard another shout from above.

"Ready!"

Through the ferns above him, Mike could only watch in horror as Steve, secured by a thin looking rope was half carried, half dragged by one of their captors back up the side of the cliff before they both disappeared from sight over the top of the cliff.

"Steve!" What was meant as a shout, slipped from his lips as a weak murmur as Mike's head dropped back against the hard ground and his eyes closed against his will as the darkness once again pulled him back into its embrace. The crimson puddle that had formed beneath his body grew a little larger, staining the ground red.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Nearing the small clearing surrounding the cabin, Roy crouched down and began to move carefully forward as he signalled the others to do the same. Crouching even lower as they reached the edge of the underbrush, held his hand up for everyone to stop as he studied the silent cabin less than ten yards ahead of them. The door to the cabin was closed but the tell-tale smoke that rose lazily from the chimney told the Homicide lieutenant that the cabin was not deserted.

"What do you want to do?" Tony asked softly as he moved closer to Roy and peered through the underbrush.

Roy frowned as he continued to study the cabin and the clearing surrounding it. Anyone standing guard near one of the two front windows would spot anyone approaching the cabin from the front. If that happened, Roy knew that the chances were Steve and Mike would be killed before they would even reach the door. His frown deepened as he continued to stare at the cabin before he turned back to the head ranger and asked, "Are you sure there's no back door?"

"Positive." Tony tilted his head towards the log cabin, "And no way they could possibly install one without taking the chance that the back of the cabin wouldn't collapse. You see the cabin was built about one hundred years ago, I'm surprised it has even survived this long and is still in such good condition, but when it was built, they used logs that were cut to the size of the cabin, each log the same size and the same width." Turning back to the cabin, Roy noticed for the first time that each row of logs was indeed just one length of log, all cut to the same length as the cabin as the ranger softly continued, "Each log has been laid one on top of the other, each secured in place by notches cut about a foot from the edge of each log so each log fits together just like a piece of a puzzle. Then when they made the doors and windows, they had to build and fit a special frame first, where the ends of the logs could be slid into securely, maintaining the integrity of the walls. If anyone started cutting a hole in the walls to try and create a window or doorway, they would run the very real risk the wall collapsing as soon as they removed that first piece of log."

Rubbing a finger across his chin, Roy nodded as he continued to stare at the cabin for several more seconds before he suddenly turned towards Bill and ordered, "I want you and two of the rangers to make your way around the back of the cabin and to the other side. I'll take the other rangers to this side. I will give you five minutes to get into position, I don't want you moving in until after I do. Once you have the rangers in position, I want you to get to the door, but don't get spotted. I want to take them by surprise when we enter."

"Okay, Roy," Bill whispered before silently pointed to two of the rangers and signalling them to follow him through the underbrush towards the back of the cabin. Crouching as low as they could get to avoid being spotted, Bill and the rangers turned to traverse through the undergrowth towards the back of the cabin.

"Wait! Get down!"

The three men froze in their tracks and dropped silently to the ground at Roy's sudden, urgently whispered order and turned back towards the sound of voices and footsteps which grew louder from somewhere in the underbrush across the clearing before three figures emerged.

Tony heard soft, angry growls from the two homicide officers beside him as they watched the limp young man in the middle, his head hanging down, who was being unceremoniously dragged back towards the cabin. Even from across the clearing, the ranger could see that the young man was seriously injured and in desperate need of medical help. "One of your guys?" he asked quietly, glancing at the Lieutenant as the cabin door opened and the three men disappeared into the cabin before the door slammed closed behind them.

Without taking his eyes off the closed cabin door, Roy gave a tense nod. "Yeah, he's one of mine."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slamming the door closed, Quintin turned and watched his two men dragged the barely conscious man further into the room before dropping him unceremoniously to the floor. Holding his gun in the hand that he had pressed against the bloody dressing that was crudely taped over the gunshot wound in his shoulder, he glanced down at the injured man before he looked back up and glared across at Davids, "Where's the other one?"

"Dead, fell down the ravine while we were chasing them," the younger man answered distractedly as he slid his foot under Steve's chest and roughly used it to roll the injured man over onto his back. Looking back up at his boss and tried to reassure him, "No way he could have possibly survived."

"You checked?"

"Well…no… "

"Then how do you know?" Quintin demanded.

"Christ, Sam, your shot hit him as he went out the door. The cop was bleeding like a stuck pig before he and Keller's kid went over the edge. And we both know that ravine has to be at least fifty feet deep with rocks at the bottom." Davids sighed in frustration, "So, no, I didn't have to check to see if he was still alive. There is no way he survived the fall and if he did, he will be long dead before anyone ever stumbles over his body." Kicking Steve hard with the toe of his shoe and ignoring the injured cop's soft, agonized gasp as Steve rolled slowly onto his side, hugging his chest tightly with his uninjured arm, Davids looked across at his boss as he pleaded, "So, why don't we hurry up and get Keller's kid to tell us where his father hid the diamonds and then let's just get the Hell out of here!"

"Bobby's right, let's just get the kid to tell us where the diamonds and then let's get out of here." Yates interrupted nervously as he turned and looked uneasily out of the windows, half- expecting to see cops and the SWAT team hiding in the undergrowth surrounding the cabin, waiting for an order to move in. Looking back Quintin, he admitted quietly, "I've got a real bad feeling about this place, Sam."

Chewing on his bottom lip, a habit both Davids and Yates knew meant that Quintin was mulling over what he had just been told, Quintin looked down, staring at the injured cop lying at his feet before he slowly returned his attention to the two men and nodded, "Okay, get him up. He claimed he knew where the diamonds are, so let's find out if he does or if he was lying to try and save his partner!"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"So, what do you want to do?" Bill asked softly, glancing at his lieutenant before returning his attention back to the cabin. The sight of Steve, beaten and unconscious, being dragged across the small clearing haunted him.

"We're going in now." Roy answered firmly, his eyes never leaving the closed door of the cabin as he ordered, "So get your guys into position. Move in quietly, we don't want to tip them off we're here. Now get going."

Bill nodded silently, turning to wave at the two rangers to follow him into position before, crouching as low as he could, he led the two rangers through the undergrowth, towards the rear of the small building.

Turning to look at the head ranger as Bill moved away, Roy tilted his head towards the cabin, "Ready?"

"Let's go." Tony answered as he nodded at the other two rangers to move out behind them before he followed Roy across the small clearing to the side of the cabin.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Slamming the barrel of his gun across the cop's battered face, ignoring Keller's almost inaudible groan as Steve's head snapped side-wards before dropping onto his chest and he sagged down, his knees buckling beneath him despite Yates' and Davids' bone bruising grips on his arms, holding him upright, Quintin demanded, "Last time, Cop, you better start telling me what I want to know or else you are going to find yourself down the bottom of that ravine, right next to your buddy! Where are my diamonds?"

Unable to draw in enough air to answer, Steve swallowed hard, gagging on the blood in his throat as he forced himself to lift his head before squinting defiantly at Quintin through his quickly swelling eyes as he weakly shook his head.

"Why, you little bastard!" Quintin roared in anger, raising the gun to strike the injured man again as Davids grabbed a handful of Steve's hair and jerked his head back up, "Where are the diamonds? If you don't have them, then you must know where your old man and your partner hid them, so tell me where they-"

Spinning around as the door to the cabin suddenly crashed open behind him, Quintin stared, shocked, as several men rushed through the door, yelling. "Police! Drop your weapons!" Instinct took over and he quickly brought up his gun, aiming it towards the first two officers who had entered the cabin. Cursing in anger and surprise, his finger tightened on the trigger a heartbeat before the sound of a gunshot reverberated around the small room. He looked down in surprise as he felt a sudden deep burning pain in his chest and the gun slipped from his fingers. Looking back up at the officers, his lips moved silently as he tried to speak before he tumbled, lifelessly, to the ground.

Pulling Steve's limp body closer to him, Davids wrapped his arm tightly around Steve's chest, using the injured officer as a human shield as he pulled his own gun from his waistband and pressed it hard against Steve's head as he turned towards the officers and rangers rushing into the cabin. Backing back slowly so his back was securely against the wall, with Steve firmly held in front of him, Davids slowly began to edge around the wall towards the door as he ordered coldly. "If you don't want a dead cop, then drop your guns and back off, and let us go."

"Not going to happen, now let him go and drop your weapon," Roy ordered, his gun steadily trained on Davids and his hostage as Tony and another ranger, slowly edged behind him and Bill before quickly moving across to the other man in the room who now stood silently watching the tense standoff, with his hands raised in surrender.

Maintaining his full attention towards Davids and his hostage, Roy tried hard not to look at Steve's battered and swollen face or the way Steve appeared to fight for each breath he took, as he concentrated on the man holding the injured man as a human shield as Davids pulled Steve closer and took another tentative step towards the door. "Come on, Davids, don't be stupid," Roy lowered his voice and softened his tone as he tried to get the desperate man to see reason, "I know that you're a smart man. Think about it, you're surrounded, you have nowhere to go and you know that there is no way I am going to allow you to leave this cabin, especially with my man. So, why don't you let him go and let's end this peacefully with no one else being hurt."

"He's right, Bobby, it's over," Yates pleaded quietly as he allowed the rangers to handcuff his arms behind his back, "Both Chris and Sam are dead, and so's the other cop. And what for? Some diamonds that we both know that we will probably never see." Gently shrugging out of the ranger's light hold on his elbow, Yates took a small step closer to his partner, ignoring the two officers who had their guns aimed at his friend as he continued gently. "Come on Bobby, please just let the kid go and let's just give up before anyone else gets hurt. With Stone dead and Keller doing a runner, we both know that even if you do manage to get away with the kid, he's not going to tell you where the diamonds are. So please, Bobby, don't you get yourself killed for some lousy rocks that you will never see. The diamonds just aren't worth it, this isn't what you really want. We both know that you're not a killer, Bobby, so don't do it. Just accept it's over. Please, Bobby, just let the cop go."

Looking at Yates, Bobby sighed as a single tear trickled down his face as he pulled Steve a little closer, his gun hand trembling as the knuckle of his trigger finger began to whiten as he slowly began to squeeze the trigger. "I'm sorry, Yatesy," he murmured, "but I don't want to go back to jail. I won't… I can't…"

"Bobby, NO!" Yates yelled in horror as Roy lunged forward, attempting to knock the gun from Davids' hand a split second before a single gunshot echoed through the small cabin.

Slamming Davids' hand hard back against the wall as the gun discharged harmlessly over their heads, Roy pinned the struggling man's arm against the solid wood, quickly removing the gun from Davids's hand. One of the rangers pulled Steve free from Davids's hold, allowing Bill to quickly move in to help Roy subdue the struggling man.

"It's over, Bobby, it's all over. Don't make things any worse than they already are." Yates pleaded with his friend softly as he watched Roy and Bill spin the large man around and pin him against the wall before roughly patting him down and snapping the handcuffs tightly around his wrists. "It's not worth it… It's over…"

Turning away from Davids, confident that Bill had the prisoner under control, Roy quickly leaned down to check Quintin. Satisfied the man was no longer a threat, he quickly grabbed Quintin's gun from the dead man's lax fingers before he straightened back up and looked across at Tony. Tilting his head in the direction of the closed bedroom door, he crossed quickly the room.

Nodding his understanding, Tony silently forced Yates down onto his knees and left his youngest ranger to guard the prisoner before he hurried across to join Roy.

Holding three fingers up towards Tony, Roy lowered each finger one by one as he silently counted down, before turning and kicking the door open after his last finger dropped. Entering the room, low, with his gun ready for any trouble as Tony followed him in high, Roy scanned the empty room in disappointment.

Rising to his feet, he looked slowly around the barren cold room, his heart sinking when he realized Mike was not there. His eyes settled on Steve's torn and stained brown coat that was laying discarded next to the wall before he turned and found himself staring at the two bloodstains near the door and a small trail of blood he had not noticed before that led across the other room and out of the front door.

A sudden flash of white-hot anger tore through Roy's soul as he spun around on his heel and headed back out into the other room. Hurrying across to where Davids was standing, still guarded by Bill, he grabbed the handcuffed man's shirt and slammed him hard back against the wall as he demanded, "Where's Stone?"

"Roy!" Bill yelled, grabbing his irate lieutenant's arms, attempting to pull him away from their suspect as the rangers watched on silently in surprise.

Shrugging loose of Bill's hold, Roy slammed Davids as hard as he could back against the wall again, ignoring the larger man's moan as Davids' head bounced painfully off the rigid wood behind him as he growled, "Where is he?"

Davids shook his head and stared definitely at Roy before he was again bodily slammed back against the wall.

"I asked where is Mike Stone?" Roy demanded again with a dangerous, no-nonsense edge to his voice.

"He's…he's dead." Yates said softly, rising to his feet before taking a small step backwards as the enraged officer released Davids and slowly turned to face him. "The cop's dead…" Swallowing hard, he flinched in fear as he took another scared step back as Roy began to walk towards him as the words tumbled out of his mouth, "He… umm … he fell into a ravine when we were chasing them."

"How do you know he's dead?" Roy growled menacingly, "Did you check?"

"Umm…. No, I…I couldn't see where he landed." Yates stuttered, taking another small step back as he glanced at the other police officer and rangers in the room, praying silently that they would come to his assistance but they all just stood watching, "but… but Bobby told me there ain't no way he could have survived a fall like that, not after already being shot. I mean, man, it's a fifty-foot drop down to large rocks," his voice dropped to a whisper as he shook his head, "just ain't no way he survived that."

Grabbing Yates' shoulder, Roy demanded as he shoved him towards the ranger who was standing near the front door to the cabin. "You're going to take me to where he fell."

Yates' head bounced up and down, reminding Bill of one of those new nodding head toys that seemed to be in the back window of almost every car.

Taking a few steps towards the door, Roy paused as he reached Steve. Glancing across at the ranger who was now holding Yates' arm tightly, Roy ordered softly, "Wait a minute," before he knelt beside the ranger who was cradling Steve in his arms. Placing his hand lightly on top of Steve's head, he studied his youngest inspector's bruised and bloodied swollen face as he removed his white handkerchief from his pocket and used it to gently wipe away the small stream of blood that trickled from the corner of Steve's blue tinged lips and ran down his cheek. Roy's chest tightened as he watched the younger man struggle to take each small breath as he looked across at the ranger and asked. "How is he?"

Looking up at the Homicide lieutenant, the ranger shook his head. "Not good, he needs to be in a hospital, and he needs to be in one fast."

Roy nodded as he turned and towards Tony and asked, "Can we get a chopper here?"

Tony nodded, "Can get one here in fifteen minutes. They can land in a clearing about five hundred yards away." Glancing across at the ranger standing near the cabin's entrance door, he ordered, "Art, get on the radio, tell them we have an urgent medical evac and tell them that we need a chopper here fast."

"Done, Tony," the ranger answered as he turned hurried outside.

"R…r…rroooyyyy?"

Jumping a little at the barely audible, wispy whisper, Roy looked back down to find Steve trying to focus on him through the small slits of his swollen eyes. Forcing a small confident smile, he lightly squeezed the younger man's arm, "Yeah, Steve, it's me. It's over, we've got you. You're safe, so I want you to relax, okay, don't try to talk. There's a chopper on the way…"

Steve weakly tried to grab Roy's sleeve to get his full attention, his heart breaking as a tear slowly trickled down the side of his face, "M…mike…"

Swallowing hard as he tried to keep the confidence in his voice, Roy gently wiped away the tear before he quickly removed his coat and placed it over his young inspector, tucking it gently around Steve in an attempt to keep him warm as he whispered, "Don't worry about that partner of yours, I promise that we're going to find him…"

Steve moaned as he shook his head, struggling to get the words out before the darkness that was lingering around the tenuous edge of his hold on consciousness pulled him back under. "My…fault…, Tell…tell Jeannie…I'm…I'm sorry." he whispered breathlessly as another tear trickled down his face and his eyes slowly slid closed, "Tell her it's…was all…my …fau…"

Squeezing Steve's hand hard, Roy's jaw tightened as he tried to push away the anger he felt towards the man who was truly responsible for what his two friends had endured as he looked down at his now unconscious inspector and whispered, "None of this was your fault, Steve, we are going to find Mike. And we both know what a stubborn old goat, Mike can be. He's a fighter, and he's not going to give up on us and we're not going to give up on him, I promise."

Slowly rising to his feet, Roy hurried across to where the ranger and Yates waited, grabbing the frightened handcuffed man's arm hard as he began to force him to walk towards the front door. Glancing at Bill as they passed the Homicide inspector who was still holding Davids’ arm tightly to prevent the man from going anywhere, Roy ordered, "Bill I want you to stay here with Steve. I will leave you two rangers to help you guard Davids until we get back. If he moves or tries to cause any trouble, shoot him!"

"Will do!" Bill replied, his grip on the other man's arm tightening as Yates led Roy, Tony and one of the rangers out of the cabin and across the clearing, towards the woods.


	12. Chapter 12

"How much further?" Roy demanded impatiently as Yates awkwardly climb over a large fallen tree before he placed his own hand on top of the log and leapt easily across.

"Not much further… I think," Yates panted breathlessly, pausing as he rubbed his wrists, relieved to have the handcuffs removed under the dire warning of what would happen if he tried to escape. Frowning, he looked around, trying to get his bearings before he tilted his head towards a barely noticeable trail of crushed ferns, "That way, about sixty, maybe seventy feet." Watching as Roy brushed past, he lightly grabbed the San Francisco Homicide lieutenant's arm as he warned softly, "Be careful, you can't see the edge of the ravine, the ferns and trees grow right up to the edge and you won't see it until it's too late."

Roy gave a single, grim nod before he rushed ahead, followed closely by Tony while the other ranger firmly grabbed Yates' arm and hurried him along.

Hurrying to catch up with Roy, Tony placed his hand lightly on the other man's shoulder. "See the blood drops?" he asked softly as he tilted his head towards the leaves of some of the broken ferns they were pushing through.

Roy nodded and pointed down at several burgundy spots on the ground that led in the direction they were headed, "There's a blood trail along the ground as well. Yates said back in the cabin that Mike was shot, looks like he was losing a lot of blood."

"I know you don't want to hear this," Tony said softly, his grip on Roy's shoulder tightening as he forced the lieutenant to stop and face him before he warned Roy softly, "but there is a very real chance that we aren't going to find him alive."

Swallowing hard, Roy rubbed a hand over his face, his hand resting on his chin as he nodded slowly, "I know."

"Just wanted to make sure." Tony smiled weakly, his sympathy evident on his face as he turned and began walking again, separating the ferns in front of him as he cautiously moved in the direction of the ravine that Yates had claimed the Homicide lieutenant had fallen into, frowning as he glanced at a piece of rope wrapped around the base of the tree he was just passing.

"Careful, you're almost near the edge." Yates called out nervously as he slowly followed the two men ahead of him.

"Whoa!" Tony gasped, reaching out his arm instinctively to stop Roy from taking another step as he separated the damaged ferns in front of him and found himself staring down into the deep ravine.

"I told you. We didn't see it either until Bobby fell down it. Luckily, Bobby landed on the ledge that Keller's kid landed on when he and the lieutenant fell." Yates said quietly behind them as he shook his head. "But the lieutenant, he musta fallen the whole way down."

"Can you see him?" Roy asked Tony, ignoring the chattering man behind them as he tried to peer down into the underbrush and shadows cast by the large rocks fifty feet below them.

"Not yet, but if he fell from…" Tony frowned as he stared down at the rocky ground beneath him before he stopped and pointed, "Wait a minute, what's that?"

"What?" Roy frowned, squinting in an attempt to see what the ranger was pointing at.

"In the ferns," Tony said, pointing at a spot directly below the small ledge below them, "See the splash of red?"

"I…I think so," Roy nodded as he squinted harder at the small red patch that was barely visible among the green leaves and large white rocks.

"It has to be him," Tony announced as he turned and hurried across to the tree where he had seen the rope as he said over his shoulder, "it's got to be his shirt."

"Are you sure?" Roy asked doubtfully, staring down into the ravine before he turned and followed the ranger.

"Positive." Tony answered as he secured the rope to the tree and tugged it to ensure that the knot would hold before he began to unwind it as he walked back to the edge of the cliff. "It's the only thing it can be," he added as he dropped the rope over the edge.

"That's good enough for me!" Roy nodded as he hurried across to where Yates stood watching. Removing the handcuffs, he had placed through the back of his belt, he grabbed Yates's arm, snapping one of the cuffs around Yates's wrist before pulling the man towards the nearest tree.

"Hey," Yates protested in surprise as Roy grabbed his other hand and pulled it around the tree before handcuffing it, leaving him hugging the tree, "what are you doing?"

"Making sure that you don't decide to go anywhere while we go and check on the condition of my officer." Roy growled before he turned and hurried across to join Tony and the other ranger at the edge of the cliff as Tony prepared to climb down into the ravine using the rope.

Looking across at the older man as Roy unbuttoned and rolled up his sleeves, Tony frowned in confusion. "Where do you think you're going?"

"That's a pretty stupid question," Roy snapped as he picked up the rope, "I'm going down with you."

"Oh no, you're not," the ranger shook his head firmly, "it's too dangerous."

"Oh, yes I am," Roy answered firmly, as he looked at the younger man, challengingly, "that's my officer and one of my closest friends down there and I am not going to stay up here and wait for you to climb down to tell me if he's alive or not. Now, do you want to lead the way, or shall I?"

Sighing at the stubborn San Francisco police officer, Tony could only shake his head in frustration before he glanced across at his junior ranger and ordered, "Pete, keep a firm hold on the rope and keep a close eye on our descent. I want you to watch for any loose rocks and debris."

"Will do, boss," the young ranger answered before spitting into the palms of his hands and taking hold of the rope.

Turning back to Roy, Tony asked, "Ready?"

"Ready." Roy nodded as he followed Tony to the edge of the cliff.

"I'll go down first and then I want you to follow after I reach the bottom. Take it nice and slow and try to take the same route down that I take, understood?"

"Understood," Roy agreed.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Stepping onto the rocky uneven ground, Roy could feel a burning sensation in both his arms as his muscles protested the strain he had placed on them as he had climbed down the rope. Dropping the rope, he turned and ran across the rough, jagged, slippery rocks to the thick patch of ferns in which they had spotted the patch of red from the top of the cliff that now towered above them.

Pushing apart the ferns, he froze as he found himself staring down at Mike's bloody and broken body. The white rocks and sandy ground beneath and around his injured friend were stained red with blood and Mike's leg was bent at what looked like an extremely painful and a very unnatural angle.

"Found him." Roy announced softly, his voice cracking as he carefully knelt down beside his friend and placed his trembling fingertips gently against the side of Mike's cool neck as he prayed for a miracle. It took several long seconds before he felt a faint, slow thump beneath his fingertips. "He's alive." Roy breathed softly before he looked up at Tony and laughed with relief, "He's alive!" he said more loudly, unable to quite believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth.

"He's alive!" Tony called up to the ranger peering over the edge of the cliff above them. "Art, I want you to go back to the cabin, the helicopter should be landing about now. Tell them we have a second victim, he's suffering from a possible gunshot wound to the back, a broken leg and possible head, back and internal injuries. We're going to need a backboard and a rescue stretcher." Glancing back down at the unconscious man on the ground before he looked back up at his ranger, Tony added, "Pete, you better tell the Doc I think we're going to need him as well."

"Will do, Tony," the younger man called down before he turned to leave. Seeing the man still handcuffed around the tree, he hesitated and turned back to the edge of the cliff, "What about our prisoner? What should I do with him?" he called down.

Looking across at Roy, Tony asked softly, "What do you want to do with him?"

Looking up from his injured friend, Roy growled, "Leave him where he is, it's not like he can go anywhere."

Nodding, Tony glanced back up at Pete as he called, "Just leave him handcuffed to the tree." He saw his ranger wave his acknowledgment of the order before disappearing from sight.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Kneeling beside his unconscious, injured colleague, holding Steve's hand as he silently willed Steve to take each hard fought for breath, Bill jumped and spun around as the door opened and Art led the rescue helicopter crew, who were carrying a metal wire stretcher, loaded with medical equipment between them, into the cabin. Quickly rising to his feet, Bill moved out of their way as the men placed their equipment on the floor and hurried across to their patient. Stepping next to Davids, who was now sitting sullenly against the wall with his hands cuffed tightly behind his back, Bill watched silently, feeling helpless, as the rescue crew dropped to their knees around their patient as they immediately began to examine Steve, each performing a different task.

"BP's low, 80/50," murmured one of the medics as the blood pressure cuff around Steve's arm deflated and he removed the stethoscope from his ears, leaving the stethoscope dangling around his neck, before placing his fingertips against Steve's neck and began to silently count. "Pulse 126, breathing is shallow, he's cyanotic," he added softly as he reached behind him for the oxygen bottle and oxygen mask, slipping the mask over Steve's mouth and nose before he turned the oxygen on, adjusting the flow.

"His right arm's broken," the second rescue crew medic announced quietly as he gently rolled Steve's head to the side, being careful not to dislodge the oxygen mask as he continued his examination, "there's also fluid and blood in his left ear canal."

The doctor nodded distractedly as he unbuttoned the torn remains of Steve's shirt, wincing at the dark bruises that marred the right side of the young man's chest before glancing down at the young man's distended stomach. He frowned as he watched only one side of Steve's chest rise and fall as he quickly slipped the earbuds of his stethoscope into his ears and placed the chest piece against Steve's chest. His frown deepened as he moved the chest piece to several different areas of Steve's chest and listened intently. Removing the stethoscope from his ears, the doctor sighed, "There's no breath sounds on the right side."

"Traumatic pneumothorax?" the medic asked.

The doctor nodded, "Probably caused by a broken rib, he's taken a real beating." Glancing across at his senior medic, he ordered, "Let's start him off with a saline drip."

The medic nodded and turned reaching into one of the medical bags, withdrawing a bag of saline and the tubing he needed before he began to set up the ordered drip.

Reaching across into the medical bag, the doctor grabbed a 50 cc syringe and a large gauge needle, as he announced over his shoulder, "We're going to have to remove some of the trapped air to stabilize him a little before we wrap and run." Quickly attaching the thick needle to the large syringe, as he turned back to his patient, glancing quickly at his youngest member of the retrieval team, he softly instructed, "Okay, I need you to sterilize the intercostal space between the fifth and six ribs and carefully turn his head to the left and move his arm out of the way."

Bill swallowed hard, tasting the hot bile that rose in the back of his throat as he watched the young medic swipe Steve's chest with a sterilization wipe, before turning Steve’s head and lifting Steve's arm out of the way to rest beside his head before the doctor skilfully inserted the needle deep into the side of Steve's chest and began to slowly pull the plunger back, filling the syringe with what looked like frothy red bubbles before removing the filled syringe and repeating the procedure with a new large syringe and needle.

Satisfied that he had removed enough trapped air to give his patient a small fighting chance to reach the hospital for desperately needed treatment, the doctor removed the needle and quickly covered the small needle site with a sterile dressing as he listened to his senior medic rattle off a new, slightly stronger set of obs. Nodding his relief, he ordered, "Okay, let's wrap and run before he decides to crash on us."

Stepping across to help as the medics turned and pulled the stretcher closer, Bill asked, "How is he, Doc?"

"Critical." the doctor answered a little harsher than he meant to, as he waited for the medic to spread the blanket over the stretcher to make the wire more comfortable for his critically ill patient. Looking up at the upset police officer, he softened his tone, "But he has a fighting chance if we can get him to San Francisco General."

Swallowing hard, Bill could only nod as he leaned down and helped to lift Steve carefully across to the stretcher, wishing that he could accompany Steve to the hospital instead of babysitting Davids, while the lieutenant searched for Mike. Stepping back, he sighed as he watched the medic cover Steve with a blanket before placing the oxygen cylinder into the stretcher.

Leaning down to help pick up the stretcher, the doctor looked up in surprise as another ranger appeared in the doorway and announced breathlessly. "We found him. We found the lieutenant."

"Is he alive?" Bill asked anxiously as he took a small step towards the excited ranger.

"Yeah, he's alive but he's in real rough shape. He's fallen into a ravine. We're going to need a backboard and a rescue stretcher. Tony says he's got a possible gunshot wound to the back, a broken leg and possible head, back and internal injuries" Looking at the doctor, the ranger added, "And Tony said we're going to need you too, Doc."

Pausing, the senior medic looked across at the doctor as he asked, "Do you want us to wait, Matt?"

Glancing down at his critically ill patient, the doctor shook his head. "No, he can't wait, if he's going to have any chance, he needs to get to a hospital now." Looking back up at his two companions, the doctor softly ordered, "So let's grab the other rescue stretcher and everything I'm going to need with this rescue. I want you two to medivac the inspector back to San Francisco General and then come straight back. Hopefully, by the time you get back, we should have retrieved the other victim and we should have him stabilized enough to be flown straight out." Turning back to the young ranger standing expectantly at the door, the doctor ordered, "I need you to help us carry the inspector back to the helicopter and then help me take everything we are going to need back to where the lieutenant is."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Tucking Tony's jacket a little tighter around Mike's body, Roy sighed in frustration as he glanced towards the top of the ravine, "Where are they?"

"They'll get here, just give them a little time," Tony told him softly as he reached across and lightly squeezed the older man's tense shoulder before he looked up at the edge of the cliff as he heard someone call his name.

"Tony?"

"See, told you that they wouldn't be long." Tony smiled at Roy as he rose to his feet and walked across the rocky ground to the base of the ravine. "I'm here," he called back up as he saw Pete's head appear over the edge of the cliff above before he saw the young ranger toss down the end of a rope.

"The doc's going to rappel down to you and then we will send down the rest of the gear." Pete called down a heartbeat before another figure, dressed in what Roy believed to be some sort of a flight suit, appeared at the edge of the cliff with his back facing the ravine.

Roy watched, still by Mike's side, as the doctor confidently stepped off the cliff's edge and began a controlled descent down to the bottom before landing lightly on his feet next to the head ranger.

Quickly, hurrying across to where a second rope had been dropped, the doctor grabbed the end of it and began to help steer the wire rescue basket and the medical gear as it was carefully lowered down. Glancing across at Tony as the ranger watched for any rocks or branches that the basket might become snagged on, the doctor asked, "What have we got?"

"Gunshot wound to the right side of his back, compound fracture of the leg," Tony answered as the basket reached them. Quickly untying it from the rope before they both picked it up and headed across to the injured man, Tony continued softly. "Plus, severe blood loss, possible head and back injuries and who knows what sort of internal injuries he might have, I have no idea how he managed to even survive the fall."

The doctor nodded grimly as they reached the injured man, and the San Francisco police officer who was kneeling beside him, before they placed the equipment, they were carrying, onto the ground close by.

"How's the inspector?" Tony asked as the doctor crouched down next to Roy.

"Critical," the doctor answered distractedly as he began to examine Mike, "He's too critical to wait until we can get his lieutenant here stabilized and back to the cabin. They're flying him back to San Francisco General for urgent medical treatment as we speak." Looking sympathetically sideways towards Roy, he added, "As soon as our guys deliver your young inspector to the hospital, they will be back to airlift our friend here to the San Francisco General as well. I hope you don't mind, Lieutenant, but after Art told me about the circumstances surrounding this rescue, I asked my guys to contact your Homicide department in San Francisco and let them know your boys have been found and are on their way home. I thought you might like their families to be informed, so they can be at the hospital waiting for them."

Roy nodded, his eyes never leaving Mike's face as he murmured, "Thanks, Doc."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Mike felt cold, so cold that he wondered if he would even be warm again, as the pain that had robbed him of his consciousness now was making itself known again and the darkness that had held him in its warm embrace slowly faded away.

He slowly became aware of voices, close by before something hard and rigid was gently placed around his neck. He jumped as he felt a sudden, unexpected, short sharp sting in the back of his hand before a warm sensation slowly began to travel up his arm.

"Okay, let's do this."

He pondered lazily over just what the soft unfamiliar voice, from somewhere close by, had meant before he felt the unmistakable sensation of someone lifting his injured leg, sending shard of pain shooting through his body. Trying desperately to grab his leg to stop anyone moving it again, he cried out in agony as the gunshot wound in his side also made itself known, leaving him feeling breathless and nauseous.

Strong, firm hands grabbed his shoulders, gently pushing him back down as he heard a familiar voice murmur close to his ear, "Easy, Mike, easy, you're safe. We've got you! The doc has to splint your leg before we can get you into the stretcher and out of here."

Forcing his heavy eyelids open, Mike could only groan as he found himself looking up at the dark outline of a blurry head hovering above him. Swallowing hard, he grimaced as what little saliva he had had in his mouth felt like razor blades as it slid down the back of his throat before he managed to whisper weakly, "Roy?"

He felt his friend reassuringly squeeze his shoulder before he felt himself rolled onto his side.

"Yeah, Mike, it's me." Roy nodded and forced a small smile as he watched the medic lift Mike's shirt, quickly examining the bullet hole in Mike's back before he grabbed a dressing, from the backpack next to him, and taped it tightly over the wound. "Hell of a way to end a fishing trip, isn't it?" Roy teased Mike as he watched the doctor turn and pick up the hard backboard before sliding it behind Mike's back. Carefully rolling Mike back onto the board, Roy grabbed one of the straps before helping to strap Mike down to the hard board beneath him, to prevent the injured man from moving.

"Roy, we're need to lift him into the stretcher now."

Mike tried to focus on at the tall figure who suddenly drifted into Mike's limited view as the man patted Roy's shoulder before disappearing again as Roy nodded and began to rise to his feet.

Panicking, Mike grabbed Roy's sleeve with the tips of his fingers as he whispered desperately, "Roy… Steve…"

"He's safe, Mike," Roy paused as he grabbed Mike's hand and tried to reassure his upset and worried friend, not surprised Mike's first concern was for his partner, before he added truthfully, "he's not in the best shape but he's alive. He's on his way to San Francisco General. You will see him there, soon, I promise."

Mike released a soft sigh of relief as his eyes drifted close as Roy's reassurance that Steve was alive echoed in his mind.

Swallowing hard as he watched Mike's eyes drift close, Roy squeezed his hand again as he surreptitiously tried to brush away a tear, "You're both alive…"

Stepping closer, Tony placed his arm on Roy's shoulder, "Roy, we really need to get him into the stretcher and to a hospital."

Swallowing hard, not trusting his voice to answer, Roy nodded as he stood up and quickly helped to lift the backboard Mike was strapped tightly to carefully into the wire basket stretcher before helping the medic and Tony secure Mike into the stretcher for the journey back up the cliff. Satisfied his patient was secure, the doctor stood up and looked across at the other two men as he ordered softly, "Okay, let's get him out of here!"


	13. Chapter 13

Sitting across from Jeannie at the small dining table, Sandra Devitt took a small sip of tea and watched over the rim of her mug as Jeannie push the food around on her plate with disinterest. Sandra inwardly sighed as she took another sip of her tea, knowing there was little she could say that would or could ease Jeannie's grief, all she could do was be with Jeannie while they waited for some news, any news about Mike and be there for her when the news came. Sandra could hardly imagine how hard it had been for Jeannie to lose her mother at such a tender age, but to lose both her father and his partner, a young man she knew both Jeannie and Mike had both come to regard not only as their closest friend but a member of their small family, on the same day, only hours apart had to be soul crushing.

Roy had promised to let her know as soon as they found Mike's… She shook her head… as soon as they found Mike, she corrected herself, refusing to give up the small sliver of hope that Mike was still alive. She needed to keep that hope alive, not only for herself but for Jeannie as well. There would be time enough for grieving later after Mike's body was found and his death confirmed.

Forcing a small smile as she placed the mug of tepid warm tea back down the table, she nodded towards the uneaten food on Jeannie's plate as she lightly teased, "I know Roy prefers day old hotdogs and stale pizza to my cooking but surely I haven't managed to ruin a salad, have I?"

Jeannie jumped as she looked up at Sandra in embarrassment, her eyes red from crying, as she placed down her fork onto her still full plate as she rushed to apologize. "Umm no, it's great. I'm sorry but I guess I'm just not hungry." She swallowed hard as a tear ran down her face, "I just wish that we would-"

"Hear something?" Sandra finished for her, reaching across the table to hold Jeannie's hand as Jeannie's bottom lip trembled and the upset young woman nodded. "Roy promised me yesterday he would let us know as soon as he knew anything- good or bad- and I haven't heard from him. So, I guess we can only hope that no news is good news and not give up on your dad." Sandra continued gently, "I'm not willing to give up on your dad yet and I hope that you're not ready to give up on him either."

"I'm not…I guess I mean I'm trying hard not to," Jeannie admitted softly as she brushed away another tear, "but Mike's been missing over twenty-four hours. It's…it's the not…"

Jeannie froze and stared at Sandra, her eyes wide with fear as a long, loud rap at the front door interrupted their conversation.

Squeezing Jeanie's hand a little harder, Sandra asked softly, "Do you want me to answer the door?"

Jeannie swallowed and nodded wooden, barely able to breathe with fear as she watched the older woman rise and walk into the living room.

Crossing to the front door, Sandra paused and drew a deep breath, preparing herself for bad news, before she opened the door. "Lee." The young Homicide inspector looked nervous as she invited him in. "Did Roy send you? Is there any news about Mike?" she asked in a rush as she ushered the young man into the living room and closed the door firmly behind him.

Looking around the living room, Lee nodded before he asked softly, "Is Jeannie here?"

Hearing Lee ask for her, Jeannie forced herself to stand up and walk out of the kitchen into the living room. Hugging her arms around herself, in an attempt to stop shaking in fear, she whispered through her tightened throat, "They've found Mike, haven't they?"

Lee nodded and smiled, "I just got a call. Roy and Bill just found both Mike and Steve. They're alive."

"They found both Mike and Steve alive?" Sandra asked in confusion as she stared at Lee in disbelief before she turned and look across at Jeannie who appeared just as shocked and confused as she was that Steve had also been found alive. Turning back to Lee, she asked, "What do you mean they found both of them?"

Lee was unable to wipe his own relieved smile from his face as he walked across and gently grabbed Jeannie's arm, "I will explain everything in the car on our way to the hospital. I'm not sure of their conditions, but I do know Steve is currently being medivaced to the General, and Mike will also be medivaced to the General shortly. I thought you would like to be there when they arrive."

Sandra paused only long enough to grab both Jeannie's and her own handbags before she gently grabbed Jeannie's other arm and guided the shocked young woman towards the door as she said, "Let's go."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Sandra Devitt studied the shocked face of the young woman sitting in the front of the unmarked police car in the rear vision mirror before she looked back at the back of the head of the young Homicide inspector as Lee slid behind the steering wheel and closed his door. "I don't understand, the news reports said that the driver killed in crash yesterday was Steve. If it wasn't Steve, then who was driving his car, and why did Roy let us believe it was Steve? And why the Hell didn't he tell us that there was a possibility that Steve was alive?"

Lee glanced across at Jeannie before he looked back at the dark blue eyes watching him intently in the rear vision mirror. He remained silent for a moment as he looked over his shoulder before pulling away from the curb, momentarily uncertain just how much information about the case that he should reveal to the two women just yet. Taking a deep breath, he looked back at the woman in the rear vision mirror as he tried to give as brief an explanation as he could. "We believed the body in the car was Steve's, after all, it was his unmarked police car and he was the only person who was supposed to be driving it, there was just nothing to suggest it could have been anyone else." Lee shrugged as he returned his attention back to the road, "We were just waiting for Bernie to make the formal identification before we officially released the name, but the media got the jump on us and released Steve's name before we were able to confirm it was him."

"I still don't understand, why didn't Roy tell us after the autopsy was done that it wasn't Steve? Why did he let us, Jeannie, think Steve was dead and that Mike's disappearance possibly wasn’t a fishing accident? How could Roy, not just him but all of you, allow us to believe Mike and Steve were dead?" The older woman's fury rose as the shock of finding out that two close friends, whom she believed to be dead, were still alive. Glancing again at Jeannie, who was sitting silently in the front seat staring straight ahead, Sandra looked back at Lee in the rear vision mirror as she hissed angrily, "What were you all thinking?"

"The autopsy on the body from the accident was unable to provide us with a positive identification on the body." Lee continued as he steered the large car around a slower moving vehicle, "And all the information we were able to gather on Mike's disappearance indicated that Mike had fallen into the river while fishing and was presumed drowned. The lieutenant even sent Bill Tanner to Yosemite to help in the search. It wasn't late last night that Charlie was able to gather enough evidence from the crash scene that left the lieutenant with some doubts about Steve being the driver. Then, this morning, we received some information that both Steve's and Mike's disappearances might be connected to a diamond heist that happened about five years ago and it was possible that the both of them could still be alive."

Jeannie turned and frowned in confusion, "A diamond heist that happened five years ago? What did that have to do with Mike's and Steve's disappearances?"

"I will leave that to the lieutenant to explain but this morning the lieutenant got a lead that Mike and possibly Steve were being held in a cabin in Redwood National Park. So, the lieutenant and Bill went to check it out. He didn't want to say anything to either of you and give you any false hopes in case the lead didn't pan out. He even kept the search at Yosemite going just in case…" Lee explained as he turned into the hospital entrance and headed towards the Emergency Department. "What the…?" he muttered in surprise.

"What?" Jeannie asked as she turned and found herself staring at a large crowd of reporters and news crews crowded outside the entrance doors to the ER. They turned as one and hurried across to the LTD, calling out for questions wanting to confirm that Steve had not been killed in the fiery crash the day before and demanding to know just what had happened to the two Homicide officers as Lee coasted to a stop.

"How the hell did they find out so fast!" Lee muttered as he reached for the radio and called for some uniformed officers to attend the scene before he turned and looked at the two women and asked, "Do you want to leave and return when the uniformed guys get here or do you want to try and run the gauntlet?"

Looking at the reporters and news cameras that now surrounded them, Jeannie turned and looked towards the entrance doors as she looked back at Sandra who reached across and squeezed her hand. Taking a deep breath and she turned back to Lee, "You said Steve is currently being medivaced to the hospital and Mike will be medivaced shortly?"

Lee nodded.

Sitting up straighter as she reached for the door, she asked, "When what are we doing sitting out here? Reporters or no reporters, I don't care, I want to be waiting for them when they arrive!"

"You heard the lady, Inspector," Sandra smiled proudly, opening her door against the surge of the reporters and the noise of their shouted questions and demands for answers as she turned and looked at Lee, "What are we doing sitting out here?" she grinned before climbing out of the car and following Jeannie,

Pushing through the jostling crush of reporters and pushing back the television cameras that seemed to appear in front of their faces, no matter which direction they looked, Lee firmly grabbed and held Jeannie's and Sandra's elbows as he ushered them quickly towards the Emergency Room entrance doors.

Jeannie stopped and turned to look up as the whirling sounds of an approaching helicopter's blades grew louder over the shouts and demands of the news reporters. She watched as the rescue helicopter flew over them before disappearing above the roof of the hospital. A few seconds the sound of the whirling blades slowed and then grew silent. "That has to be Steve!" Jeannie announced as she shook free of Lee's light hold and began to push through the surrounding crowd as Sandra and Lee quickly followed her.

Pushing through the doors of the ER, Jeannie stopped as she saw the elevator doors open and a stretcher surrounded by doctors, nurses and three men dressed in flight suits being pushed out of the elevator. Through the crowd of bodies that surrounded the stretcher, she instantly recognized the patient's light brown hair. "Steve!" she gasped as she ran across to join the small entourage as they wheeled the stretcher towards one of the Emergency Examination rooms.

"The patient is twenty-eight-year-old Homicide Inspector Steven Keller who is suffering blunt force trauma from being severely beaten during the last twenty-four hours. There is also a possibility that he also may have been involved in a fatal car accident yesterday, although that has not yet been confirmed. He has several palpable rib fractures on the right side, one rib we believe may have punctured his lung. BP 70/50, pulse- 130, he's cyanotic, breath sounds have ceased on the right-hand side. Doctor Hansen inserted a needle into the right side of his chest in the inter-costal space between the fifth and sixth rib and evacuated 100 ccs of frothy blood before we commenced the medical evacuation." One of the helicopter medics reported to the medical staff, glancing across at the young woman who pushed her way to the side of the stretcher and gently grabbed the patient's hand as she ran alongside, her face paling with fear as she stared down at the young inspector's bruised and battered face which was half hidden by the oxygen mask. He continued his report as the door to the examination room was pushed open and he helped push the stretcher inside, "He also has suffered a fractured right arm as well as facial and head injuries, blood and fluid present in his left ear canal. We have started him on normal saline, opened wide, and …"

"I'm sorry, Miss, but you will have to wait out here."

Jeannie jumped as the nurse gently released her tight hold on Steve's hand and prevented her from entering the examination room. "But …" Jeannie began to protest, stepping around the nurse as Steve was carefully lifted across to the examination bed.

"I promise that as soon as there are any updates on the inspector's condition, we will let you know," the nurse promised her softly, stepping back in front of her, blocking her view of her father's partner as she was gently pushed out of the room before the door closed firmly in front of her.

Hurrying across to where Jeannie stood, staring at the closed door, Lee gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders before guiding her across to one of the hard chairs in the small area that had been set up as a waiting room area. After gently sitting her down next to his lieutenant's wife, he hurried across and poured two mugs of the black thick sludge that he hoped was coffee from the small coffee-pot on the small table in the corner of the room. Glancing across at the two women, he chewed uncertainly on his bottom lip before he added sugar and cream and quickly stirred the two mugs. Picking them up, he crossed back to the two worried women and handed each a mug as he tried to reassure them both, "I'm sure the doctor will update us on Steve's condition as soon as he can."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"Anything else you need, Doc, cause we've got to get back and evac his partner..." The medic asked as he and the other members of the rescue team stepped back from their patient, allowing the medical staff to take over the inspector's treatment.

Glancing up at the three men standing near the door, the doctor gave them a small tight smile, "No, you guys take off, we'll take everything from here. How long do you think your ETA will be with his partner?"

"Twenty minutes flight time there, twenty minutes back," the medic frowned, shrugging as he added, "But it really depends on what sort of a rescue we end up encountering, whether we have to winch the lieutenant up from the bottom of the ravine or if they have managed to stretcher him out and have stabilized him enough to be medivaced out. I just don't know 'til we get there... "

The doctor nodded and turned back to his patient in what the medic knew was a silent dismissal. Turning, he nodded for his team to grab their gear before he quickly led them out of the examination room.


	14. Chapter 14

Slumped sullenly against the wall, Davids turned and watched as the cabin door opened and Yates helped carry the injured cop, who strapped securely into the stretcher, inside. A small snarl of hatred curled his top lip as he stared at the injured man whom he had hoped had been killed in the fall, ignoring Yates as the other man was handcuffed again before being guided back to the wall and pushed down to sit beside him. Turning away from the small group who surrounded the stretcher in the middle of the room, he looked around the room. His eyes drifted disinterestedly across the sheet covered body of his boss and the young ranger who was standing in the doorway, before he looked back up at the cop and the ranger who were guarding him. He froze, as his heart began to beat faster as he looked back towards the ranger standing in the doorway before he surreptitiously glanced back up at the two men who were supposed to be guarding him. Their attention was more focused on the activity around the stretcher, then guarding Yates or him. Quickly looking back across at the men who were now kneeling around the stretcher, a small smile tugged at his lips.

Using his handcuffed hands to push off the wall behind him, he started to rise to his feet.

"No Bobby, don't!" Yates grabbed his friend's shirt with his handcuffed hands, pulling Davids back down as he whispered, "It's suicide, you won't make it out of the door."

"I don't care!" Davids hissed, "I'm not going back to prison!"

"Listen, I've been thinking, we might not have to," Yates murmured, falling silent as he saw Bill glanced over his shoulder at them. Waiting until the cop's attention returned to the injured man on the stretcher, he turned and looked at the confusion and interest on Davids' face as he continued softly, "The boss believed that Keller and Stone were in on stealing his diamonds together, so maybe, just maybe, the cops will believe it as well."

"Yeah, sure!" Davids scoffed in disbelief as he started to rise to his feet again.

"No, listen, man!" Yates hissed softly, his eyes flickering towards the men crowded around the man in the stretcher, reassuring himself that they were focused on getting the cop stabilized and ready to be medivaced and not paying any attention to them. Grabbing his friend's shirt again with his handcuffed hands, he roughly pulled Bobby back down, "I know you think that I'm not that smart and I guess maybe you're right but think about it. What if the boss was right? What if Stone was in on ripping the diamonds off? We both know that he met with Keller before Keller and the diamonds disappeared. And we both know that Stone was threatening Keller with keeping his kid away from him."

"So?" Davids growled.

"Dammit, Bobby, and you think I'm dumb! Think about it!" He waited a moment before he saw Bobby's eyes light up as the other man made the connections before he tilted his head towards the men surrounding Mike's stretcher and whispered, "Even if these flat foots decide that they aren't interested in hearing about a dirty cop like Stone, I'm sure that the DA would be. Especially after that cop was involved with trying to get his hands on a million dollars of stolen diamonds and almost got his partner killed while doing it. And, you heard them, Keller's kid is critical, think about how much the DA will want Stone's head if the kid dies. And if we offer to make a deal…"

Davids smiled as he relaxed against the wall and stared at the injured cop laying in the stretcher. "Yeah…yeah, you're right! Let's do a deal! Stone for our freedom!" he chuckled softly, before looking back at his friend and nodding his head in agreement as he heard voices outside. Turning back towards the door, he was unable to stop grinning as he watched the helicopter medical retrieval team enter the cabin and hurried across to where Stone was laying on the stretcher, ready to be medivaced out.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"Why aren't they back with Mike yet?" Jeannie asked, running her hand through her hair as she paused her nervous pacing of the small waiting room and turned to look questioningly towards Sandra, "What can be taking them so long?"

Rising from the chair, Sandra quickly crossed the room and grabbed Jeannie's hands, holding them tightly, "They will have to prepare Mike to be medivaced out first, and we don't know how long that takes," she reassured Jeannie as she released one of Jeannie's hands and gently brushed back behind Jeannie's ear, a stray piece of hair that had fallen across Jeannie's face. "I'm sure that they are looking after him and it won't be much longer before you see him."

Swallowing hard, Jeannie nodded as she forced a small weak smile, "Thanks."

Lightly cupping Jeannie's cheek, Sandra smiled affectionately back before she looked over Jeannie's shoulder towards the elevator as the doors slid open and a stretcher was wheeled out surrounded by medical staff and the same airmen who had brought Steve into the hospital. "You're welcome, Sweetheart," she answered distractedly.

Frowning, Jeannie turned to see what had caught Sandra's attention.

"Mike!" Jeannie ran towards the stretcher with Sandra and Lee following closely behind. "Mike!"

"Can we hold it a sec, guys?" Roy asked softly, glancing across at Jeannie as she ran towards them before looking back at the doctor as he quickly explained, "That's his daughter."

Needing no more an explanation than those three simple words, the doctor nodded at the medical staff to wait before stepping aside as Jeannie reached the side of the stretcher.

Reaching the stretcher, Jeannie stared at her father who was strapped tightly to the backboard. Mike's head held rigid by red covered foam blocks that had been placed each side of his head at his pale, scrapped and pain-pinched face, his eyes were closed and the lower half of his face was covered by an oxygen mask, the tubing to two drips, suspended above the stretcher by one of the retrieval team, snaked down to disappear beneath the blanket that had been carefully tucked around her father. "Oh, Daddy," she murmured, choking on her tears as she tried hard not to cry.

Forcing his eyes open, Mike blinked slowly as he tried to focus on the blurry familiar face that hovered in his limited line of sight. "I'm okay… Sweetheart," he breathed softly, forcing a small smile beneath the oxygen mask as he weakly squeezed the small hand that slipped into his under the blanket.

Swallowing hard, Jeannie nodded, her bottom lip quivering as she leaned down and lightly kissed her father's forehead. "I know you are," she murmured, straightening up and tightly squeezing his hand again as she watched his eyes slide closed.

"I'm sorry but we really have to get him into the Examination Room," the doctor told her gently, nodding at the medical staff surrounding the stretcher as Sandra gently grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away before the stretcher was wheeled away.

"Come on, Jeannie, we have to let the doctors do their job."

Wrapping her arms around herself, Jeannie nodded, unable to speak as she turned and watched as Mike's stretcher was rushed into the examination room next to the one where Steve had been taken into almost an hour before.

Roy watched silently as his wife wrapped her arm around Jeannie's shoulders as she murmured something softly into the young girl's ear before leading her back across to the waiting area. Grabbing Lee's arm to stop the young inspector as Lee began to follow them, Roy guided him down the corridor, stopping when he was satisfied that they could speak without anyone overhearing.

"How's Steve?" he asked quietly, glancing towards the Examination Room doors.

"Critical," Lee answered softly. "His right lung had completely collapsed when they brought him in. The doctors were going to insert a chest tube before they were going to take him to x-ray but he was bleeding too heavily into his chest. They had no choice, they had to rush him into the OR for emergency surgery to try to relieve the pressure on his heart caused by the blood that was pooling in his chest. They are also worried about possible head injuries, they promised to update us on his condition as soon as they can." Glancing back over his shoulder at Jeannie who was sitting rigidly on one of the chairs worrying a tissue she was holding in her lap, he turned back to Roy and added, "Jeannie took it hard."

Looking over Lee's shoulder at the two women in the waiting room before he looked back at his inspector, Roy sighed as he ran a hand tiredly over his face, feeling twenty years older than he had felt yesterday morning before this nightmare started, "Mike's not in any better condition. He and Steve fell into a fifty-foot-deep ravine, Steve landed on a ledge about halfway down, but Mike fell to the bottom. They don't know what kind of internal, head or back injuries they may be dealing with yet, he also took a round in the back. He's lost a lot of blood and his blood pressure was unstable on the flight here." Looking back across at Jeannie, he sighed, "Jeannie's going to need as much support as we can give her over the next twenty-four hours, especially if something happens to either Mike or Steve."

Swallowing hard, Lee nodded as he turned and looked back at Jeannie before he returned his attention back to his lieutenant, changing the subject. Wanting to know what had happened at the cabin but not quite willing to ask the lieutenant directly, instead asking, "What about Quintin?"

"Dead. Bill is bringing back the other two involved in this mess." Roy answered succinctly before demanding, "What the hell happened with Keller? How did he manage to hang himself in a holding cell and then escape?"

Lee shook his head, "From what I have been able to find out so far, it looks like Keller tore up his blanket and used it to hang himself on the cell bars. He was found on the holding cells officers next round and was transferred across to San Francisco General in a stable condition. The doctors said he was lucky that he was found so quickly and that he appeared not to have suffered any serious injuries. But they sent him down to x-ray to make sure there was no injury to his neck or spine. While he was alone in the x-ray room, he managed to slip out and escape."

"Where the Hell was his guard?" Roy growled.

"I don't have all the details of what happened yet, Lieutenant, but I do know that IA guys are investigating it." Roy sighed and nodded before Lee cleared his throat and added, "There's more."

The Homicide lieutenant waited for his inspector to continue, suspecting that he was not going to like what he was about to be told.

"I checked with Robbery about how many diamonds were grabbed during the heist." Shifting nervously under his lieutenant's soul piercing stare, Lee continued, "And it looks like we've only recovered about half of the diamonds…"

Roy looked past Lee at the closed Examination Room door as he frowned, "So, Keller might have stashed the rest of the diamonds …"

"Or he was working with someone else when he grabbed the diamonds." Lee suggested.

"Maybe…" Roy mused softly as he looked back at Lee, "But who?"


	15. Chapter 15

Pulling the collar of his coat a little higher to cover the darkening tell-tale bruises that ringed his neck, and dropping his head down low, Brian joined the large group of excited tourists and their guide as they walked past the uniformed police officer standing at the door of the bus depot. Glancing over his shoulder as the group headed towards the counter, he released a small breath of relief as the officer looked down at his watch and walked away. Veering off from the small group, he hurried across to the row of metal lockers that lined the far wall.

He stopped and scanned the wall of lockers, suddenly uncertain of just which locker he had paid for to hide the rest of his possessions. Reaching for the bottom of his coat, he quickly removed the small key he had hidden in the hem line before glancing at the number that had been engraved on the key's head and stepping across to the locker that had the same number emblazoned in red on the small metal tag that was welded to the front of the locker door. Slipping the key into the lock of the locker before turning it, he quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching. Satisfied that no one was interested in what he was doing, he opened the door and reached inside and removed the heavy cigarette packet that was encased in adhesive tape to stop its precious contents from spilling out before hastily stashing it into the inside pocket of his coat.

Reaching back inside, he picked up the thin white envelope and opened it up, counting its contents. Seventy-eight dollars! That was all they believed the last ten years of his life was worth. Seventy-eight lousy dollars and a cheap suit that barely fitted him to start his 'new' life on the outside. Closing the envelope, he shoved it into his pocket, he slammed the locker closed. Seventy-eight dollars, he decided was enough to buy him a ticket on the next bus headed to LA where he was sure that he would be able to sell the diamonds so he could start the life, a life without Jenny or the brat hanging around his neck weighing him down, that he deserved somewhere abroad, somewhere where there was no extradition back to this hellhole of a town. Hell, there would even be enough money left after the price of the ticket to buy a few drinks in the little rundown bar that he had spotted next door while he waited for the next bus to leave.

He turned and glanced up at the arrival and departure board, the next bus for LA was not due to leave until eight pm. He still had at least three hours to kill.

Licking his lips in anticipation, he turned, lowering his head again as he headed towards the door. He could almost taste that first sip of whiskey that was waiting just for him in the bar next door.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Rubbing the back of his neck with his hand to try and dispel some of the stiffness that had settled there after sitting so long on the hard-plastic chair, Roy looked up at the large clock on the wall. Both Mike and Steve had both been in surgery for hours and there had been no updates on either of them. Glancing around the small crowded waiting room, Roy could see the fear and worry that he was feeling mirrored in the faces of his fellow Homicide and SFPD officers who had come to the hospital, some as soon as they had finished work, others after they had received a phone call on their day off telling them what had happened, as they anxiously waited for an update on the two popular officers. Returning his attention to the young woman sitting between his wife and himself, he reached across and gave Jeannie's trembling hand a light squeeze as he whispered, "We should hear something soon."

Biting her bottom lip, Jeannie nodded as she continued to stare at the door, willing it to open and the doctors to come in and announce that both operations had been a success and the two most important men in her life were going to make a fast and full recovery.

All heads turned as one and the soft murmurs within the room fell silent as the waiting room door finally opened and the two surgeons walked in together, both still dressed in their blue operating room scrubs.

Rising to his feet, Roy slowly followed Jeannie as she hurried across the room to meet the doctors, as he tried to read the doctors' faces so he could prepare himself for whatever news, good or bad, they were about to receive. Roy sighed, both men must be Hell of a poker players, neither doctors' faces gave anything away. He felt Sandra's and Jeannie's hands slide into his, both squeezing his hands tightly with fear as they joined the doctors near the door. "How are they?" Roy asked as he felt the holds on his hands tighten and the two women on either side of him remained silent.

He watched, momentarily unable to breathe, as both doctors traded glances before the older man returned his attention back to the three, worried people who were standing in front of him before he glanced at the crowd of police officers and friends of the two injured men who were sitting silently in the waiting room waiting for an answer. Returning his attention back Jeannie, Roy, and Sandra, he began, "My name is Leon Todds, and I am the surgeon who operated on the lieutenant.” Tilting his head towards the other surgeon, he added, "And this is Dr Chris Hunter, he is the surgeon taking care of Inspector Keller." He paused as Hunter nodded at the three anxious people in front of them before he continued, "Lieutenant Stone's condition is critical but stable and he is being currently in recovery. He will be transferred to the ICU for monitoring soon. He suffered multiple injuries, the most serious of which are the internal injuries he sustained in the fall and from being shot."

"What sort of injuries are we talking about?" Roy asked cautiously, glancing across at Jeannie, trying not to wince as the grip she had on his hand tightened to a bone bruising intensity.

Looking at the white-faced young girl, whom the nurses had warned him was the Lieutenant's daughter, and who appeared on the verge of passing out, the surgeon gently grabbed Jeannie's elbow as he led her back to one of the chairs as he said gently, "Let's take a seat first."

Waiting until Jeannie had settled on the chair, Dr Todds gently placed his hand on her shoulder, ensuring he had her full attention before giving her a light reassuring squeeze as he continued his update. "As I have said Lieutenant's Stone's condition is critical but stable and I do expect him to make a complete recovery, but that's not to say his recovery is going to be fast or easy. It's going to take a couple of months for his injuries to fully heal. He was shot in the back; I understand while trying to escape." He glanced at Roy for confirmation who nodded, before looking back at Jeannie and continuing, "The bullet lodged in his small intestines, resulting in significant blood loss and causing bacteria to leak out and contaminate his guts. We removed the bullet and were able to repair the damage. We also washed out the contamination and have started him on antibiotics and are replacing the blood he has lost.

He has sustained a moderate concussion, as well as several severe breaks in his left leg and several broken ribs probably due to the fall. He was extremely lucky; we believe that his fall was probably broken by the undergrowth and ferns growing on the sides and at the bottom of the ravine. Unfortunately, he is going to have to return to the operating room when he is a little stronger to have the break in his leg pinned and repaired, and we are watching him closely for any infections but as I said before," he smiled down at her as he tried to reassure her, "he's critical but I do believe he is going to make a full recovery, it's just going to take some time. Once we get him settled into his room in the ICU, I will take you up to see him."

"What about Steve?" Roy asked quietly as he looked across at Dr Hunter who had stepped closer.

"Inspector Keller's condition, I'm afraid, is critical but unstable." The surgeon began, deciding it was kinder to be totally honest about the tenuous condition of his patient, "He has several broken ribs, a broken arm and a severe concussion as well as a fractured cheekbone and a perforated eardrum caused by being severely beaten. Unfortunately, one of the broken ribs tore his right lung, causing it to collapse and the right side of his chest to fill with blood, which placed pressure on his heart and caused it to stop beating while he was in surgery. We were able to drain some of the blood to relieve the pressure and restart his heart before we stabilized the broken ribs and repaired the lung. We have placed him on a ventilator to allow him to rest while his lung re-inflates but we will be monitoring his lung closely for anymore bleeding as it re-inflates."

"But Steve's going to be alright, isn't he?" Jeannie asked softly.

The surgeon hesitated before he answered honestly, "I'm sorry but I'm afraid I just don't know, his condition is touch and go. If he survives the next twelve hours, he has a chance."

Unable to speak as the tears began to trickle down her face, Jeannie nodded as she clutched Roy's hand more tightly.

Glancing down at his watch before he looked back up at Jeannie, Roy and Sandra, Dr Todds announced softly, "I'm afraid that you won't be able to see Inspector Keller until his condition stabilizes a little more, but they should have the lieutenant settled in his room by now. Would you like to see him for a few minutes?"

Jeannie nodded as she rose from her chair and began to follow the surgeon out of the waiting room. Following Jeannie and the surgeon out of the waiting room, Sandra stopped and frowned as Roy turned and began to head down the corridor instead of following the surgeon across to the elevator to go up to the ICU. "Roy, aren't you coming?" she asked softly, grabbing his arm.

Roy turned back towards her and gave a small shake of his head as he told her quietly, "No, not yet. I have to get back to Bryant Street. Bill should be arriving with Mike's and Steve's kidnappers and I want to be there when he does. But please, Sweetheart, stay with Jeannie. She needs you. I will be back as soon as I can, I promise. And if there is any, and I mean any, change at all in either Mike's or Steve's conditions…"

"I will let you know straight away." Sandra nodded, lightly kissing her husband on the cheek. "Now go, I will take care of Jeannie but promise me you are going to charge those men with everything you can. Don't you let them get off," she whispered quietly into his ear.

"I won't," Roy promised, kissing her back lightly before he turned and hurried down the corridor.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm his temper, Bill turned and walked out of the small interrogation room, slamming the door hard as he left, causing not only the man whom he had been trying to interrogate but also his fellow inspectors and police officers who were in the bullpen to jump and turn to stare at him in surprise. The normally unflappable inspector ignored the questioning looks as he headed across to the coffee table and poured himself a mug of the strong black coffee that was rumored to be able to be used to strip paint, and took a large sip, grimacing at the coffee's bitter, burnt taste.

"Is everything okay, Bill?" Grabowski asked as he joined his colleague at the coffee table, pouring himself a mug of the deadly brew as he cast a covert glance towards the smug looking man sitting in the interrogation room before returning his attention back to the man standing next to him.

Taking another deep breath as he placed his mug back down on the table, Bill nodded as he added cream and two large teaspoons of sugar before stirring his coffee vigorously. "Yeah, everything's fine," he sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some loose change, dropping the coins into the collection jar before he picked up his mug again and turned to look at the man in the interrogation room. Taking another large sip of his coffee, he turned back to his colleague as he admitted quietly, "I just needed to get out of there before I did something that could jeopardize our case."

"That bad?" Grabowski frowned.

Bill nodded slowly and sighed, "Yeah, they are claiming that Mike was in cohorts with Keller when Keller stole the diamonds from Quintin. That's why they grabbed Steve, Quintin wanted to use Steve to try and force Mike and Keller to give him back the diamonds he had stolen."

"To force Mike?" Grabowski's frown deepened as he stared at Bill in disbelief before slowly turned and stared at Yates. "So, is he trying to claim that Mike was involved in all of this? That's insane! You don't believe him, do you? I mean, Mike would never… Hell Bill… Mike was grabbed as well. There's no way…"

"No, of course I don't." Bill snapped a little more harshly than he meant. "Of course not," he continued lowering his voice as he patted Grabowski's shoulder in a silent apology, "I guess it's just after believing both Steve and Mike had been killed in separate accidents yesterday, and after seeing Mike's and Steve's conditions in that cabin today after finding them…." Bill shook his head, "And then to have them both accuse Mike of somehow being involved in this whole mess…"

"Look Bill, why don't you get out of here for a couple of hours. Maybe go home for a couple of hours to unwind or even go to the hospital to see how Steve and Mike are. I will finish taking his statement and get the DA down here to hear what both have to say."

Bill paused with the mug he was holding held halfway up to his lips as he glanced towards the interrogation room again before he slowly returned his attention back to his friend and nodded. "Just make sure that you do everything by the book and when you take him down to the holding cells to wait for the DA, tell the guys I want a close eye kept on both of them. I don't want either one of them getting off on a technicality or necking themselves in an attempt to escape like Keller did."

"I will tape his statement as well as get it down on paper and I will make sure the guys down in booking know that both of them are to be watched closely." Grabowski nodded as he took the mug from Bill's hand and placed it onto the coffee table before he began to gently steer his friend towards the bullpen door, grabbing Bill's coat and handing it to him as they passed his desk. "Don't worry, Bill, we have them dead to rights. There's no way that either one of them are going to walk after what they did to Mike and Steve. Now go. I will tell Roy that I insisted that you take the rest of the day off and that you won't be back until tomorrow."

"Thanks." Bill murmured as he was ushered out of the door. Looking back over his shoulder, his anger churned his guts as he clutched his teeth at the mere sight of at the man still sitting in the interrogation room. He stood silently watching as Grabowski turned and grabbed the tape recorder from off the bench before he called out to Wilkins to join him, and the two inspectors headed across the bullpen and entered the interrogation room. Turning away from the door, Bill hurried out to the corridor, he knew going home to rest was not an option, not when he could join Roy, Lee, Sandra and Jeannie at the hospital as they waited for update on Mike's and Steve's conditions.


	16. Chapter 16

Stepping out of the elevator, Roy paused as he saw the entrance doors to the hospital foyer slide open before Bill stepped through them. He studied Bill's tense face as his inspector hurried across to the elevator to join him and asked, "Any word on Mike and Steve?"

"Both are out of surgery and listed as critical, Mike's pretty beaten up, the bullet lodged in his intestines, the doctors were able to remove it, but he lost a lot of blood and they are going to have to watch him closely for any sign of infection. He also got a couple of broken ribs as well as a concussion and his broken leg. The docs say they are confident that he will make it, but he's got a long and painful recovery ahead of him."

"And Steve?"

Roy hesitated and looked over Bill's shoulder at the entrance doors as he took a deep breath. Looking back at his inspector, all he could do was shake his head, "He's not doing so good, the docs say he critical but unstable, it's touch and go at the moment. The doc said he was beaten severely…"

Bill swallowed and nodded, "I know, Yates told me in great detail how much pleasure Davids took in beating him when he tried to resist being grabbed, he said Davids continued the beating long after Steve lost consciousness."

"They broke his ribs, his arm, as well as his cheekbone, and they left him with a severe concussion. The doc said one of the broken ribs tore his lung and caused it to collapse. His chest filled with blood and put pressure on his heart," Roy swallowed hard, rubbing his face as he struggled to remain in control of his emotions before he continued softly, "causing his heart to stop. The doctors were able to drain the blood and re-start his heart again before they repaired the lung. They're going to be monitoring him closely for anymore bleeding but at the moment …" Roy sighed softly and shrugged, stepping out of the way as the elevator door opened and a dark-haired man stepped out and hurried past them.

"Does Mike know?" Bill asked.

"Not yet, he's still pretty heavily sedated. Jeannie and Sandra are with him now. I was just about to head back to the bullpen to get a quick update before coming back and sitting with Steve for the night." Roy shrugged as he quietly admitted, "To be honest, I really don't want him to be alone just in case … in case anything ... "

Bill nodded as they turned back towards the lift and hit the button as Bill began to update his lieutenant, "I left Grabowski to get Yates's confession. Yates has waived his Miranda rights and didn't even want to lawyer up. He says he just wants to get it all off his chest and admit to what he did, that grabbing Steve and Mike wasn't his idea, it was Quintin's after Quintin discovered that Keller had stolen the diamonds he was supposed be retrieving." Bill paused and looked away, momentarily unable to look his lieutenant in the face as the elevator door opened and they stepped inside, "I had to get out of the interview room, Roy, I didn't want to blow it by beating Yates to a pulp after he told me about how they grabbed Steve in an attempt to force his father or Mike to reveal where the diamonds were."

"Did you just say they grabbed Steve to try and force his father or Mike to reveal where the diamonds were?" Roy asked turning to stare at Bill in disbelief.

"That's what they are claiming," Bill nodded. "That Mike was somehow in cahoots with Brian Keller and the two of them were involved in ripping the diamonds off from Quintin. Yates and Davids both claim that Mike was seen meeting up with Keller in a café the night before Keller disappeared with the diamonds."

"Do you believe them?" Roy asked softly as the elevator doors slid closed.

"Hell Roy, they're lying through their teeth. Steve let us all think that his father was dead, not that I can blame him, and I'm betting that he didn't even tell Mike anything different. So, there's no way that Mike even knew that Keller was alive, and even if he did, there's no way he would ever meet up with Keller, for any reason!" Bill shook his head, "No, these two are desperately looking for a way out of spending the rest of their life in prison and they are hoping by trying to do a deal and shifting some of the blame across to Mike is going to get them the deal they need to save their own necks!"

Roy nodded as he felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he remembered the extensive file, he had found that Mike had been keeping on Brian Keller, hidden in Mike's desk. He found himself wondering if maybe Yates and Davids were telling the truth, not about Mike being in cahoots with Keller with stealing the diamonds, but Mike, for some reason that he was not yet aware of, had met up with Keller the night before Keller had stolen the diamonds.

"Did he say who was driving Steve's car when it crashed?" Roy asked, desperate to change the suddenly uncomfortable subject as he stabbed the button that would take them back up to the ICU with his finger before turning and watching the doors slide closed.

"Just some strung out junkie whom Davids befriended a few weeks, looking for a way to make a fast buck for his next score." Bill told him as they felt the elevator begin to rise, "He thought all he was supposed to do was take the car and dump and burn it for the insurance. He didn't know he was involved in a cop's assault or kidnapping; Steve was already in the boot of Davids' and Yates' car when the kid arrived. Yates said Davids gave the kid a hit of juice before he got in Steve's car."

"So, he was flying high when he took the car to dump it."

Bill nodded, "Explains why the car was traveling so fast…"

"And why there were no skid marks before he crashed."

Bill nodded as the elevator jerked to a stop a second before the door slid open and they stepped out.

"What about Keller? Any sightings of him?"

Bill shook his head as they entered the ICU, "Not yet, but we will find him." he tried to reassure his boss as Roy led him to his two friend's ICU rooms.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Jeannie looked over her shoulder as Roy and Bill entered her father's ICU room.

"How is he?" Bill asked softly as he joined Jeannie at the side of Mike bed and stared down at the pale face of his lieutenant and friend. He swallowed hard as he stared at Mike's bruised and scrapped face, the white bandage that encircled his friend's chest and heavy looking cast that Mike's broken leg was enclosed in, suspended above the bed by a system of rope, weights and pulleys that were designed to help place traction on Mike's broken leg, so the broken bones could heal correctly.

"He's sleeping," Jeannie forced a small smile through her tears as she looked back at her father's pale face, lightly squeezing the hand she held in her own hand as her other hand gently stroked Mike's face. "But the doctors are confident that he's going to be okay." Biting her bottom lip as a tear fell and left a wet stain on the fresh, lightly starched white sheet that covered her father, she swallowed hard before she whispered, "But Steve isn't doing as well."

Placing his arm around Jeannie's shoulder, Bill gently pulled her closer, as he nodded and continued to look down at Mike, "I know," he murmured softly before he gave her shoulder a light squeeze, "But Steve's a fighter and we both know he's going to try his best not to let Mike down, so don't give up on him just yet."

Jeannie nodded as she lifted her hand and brushed away her tears, "I won't."

Standing behind the chair where his wife was sitting, Roy silently watched the soft exchange between Bill and Jeannie as he lightly placed his hand on Sandra's shoulder before he unconsciously used his pinkie finger to gently brush her cheek.

Looking up at her husband, Sandra lovingly pressed her cheek against his hand, waiting for him to glance down before she gave him a small smile and whispered, "I thought you were headed back to the bullpen."

Looking down at his wife, Roy nodded, "I was, but Bill gave me a full report when I met him in the lobby so there's no need for me to go back, I will give Rudy a call in a couple of minutes and bring him up to speed about the case." Shrugging, he added, "And then I think I will sit with Steve for a while."

Lifting her hand to cover her husband's hand, Sandra smiled, "I know that Steve isn't awake, and I know that you're not Mike, but I think Steve would like to have you with him."

Roy nodded as he leaned down and lightly kissed her as he whispered, "Thank you. How did I get so lucky to marry a woman like you?"

Sandra's smile grew a little wider as she looked up lovingly at her husband, "Who said that you are the lucky one? Now go, ring Rudy and then go and sit with Steve. He needs someone with him. I will come in and join you soon," she softly ordered as she gave him a gentle push back towards the door.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

_"And just repeating our lead story of the day, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police department has confirmed that two San Francisco homicide officers, both who were believed to have been killed in separate accidents yesterday, have been found alive after being held hostage by an escaped prisoner and two of his accomplices in the Redwood National Park. Lieutenant Michael Stone and his partner, Inspector Steven Keller are both currently listed in critical condition in San Francisco General Hospital after a dramatic rescue by police and park rangers…"_

The barman glanced up at the TV screen as the news report flashed across the screen for what seemed the hundredth time this evening. He sighed, only too aware that the news report was just going to set off another rant from the rambling drunk who had been downing drinks for the last four or five hours. At first the man had appeared shocked by the news that the two officers had been found alive, even claiming that one of the officers was his son. But the drunk had made no attempt and had shown absolutely no interest to even go to the hospital to check on his kid, if that part of his self-pitying, rambling story was even true, instead he continued to down drinks and tell anyone who would listen how the kidnapping was the fault of the lieutenant. He claimed that the lieutenant had ruined not only his attempts to reconcile with his son, who he also claimed was the lieutenant's partner, but also had almost ruined his life. Looking across the bar as Brian looked up at the TV screen, the barman sighed loudly before he muttered to himself, "Oh Lord, help us, here we go again."

"This is all his fault! Everything…" Brian slurred drunkenly, pointing up at the TV as a photo of the Homicide lieutenant flashed up on the screen, "everything that's happened… is all the great Lieutenant Michael Stone's stinking, lousy fault, not mine! I...I told him to get his big bulbous nose out of my business, if I wanted to see my kid, I would, and he couldn't stop me. The kid's my brat, not his! And if I want to see him, no-one, not even great Lieutenant Michael Stone is going to stop me."

Brian took a deep swig of his drink before he slammed the glass back onto the bar, ignoring the liquor that splashed over his hand as he looked back at the bored barman who rolled his eyes and grabbed the dirty dish towel that was tucked into the back of his pants and began to wipe the spillage. Brian ignored the barman's eye-rolling and bored yawn as he continued to complain, "But he just had to be the big hero, didn't he? Told me I wasn't to go near my own brat, that Stevie boy was doing just fine without me, that Stevie boy had done just fine with his mother after the bitch took him with her when she left me, and that Stevie boy had grown into a man most fathers would be proud of while I sat in prison after that bitch's death. Like I had nothing to do with the brat's upbringing, like I was not the one who had to pull the bitch and the brat back into line each time they disrespected me!"

After taking another big gulp of the fiery liquid, Brian slammed the glass back down and pushed it at the barman in a silent order to re-fill it before he turned and looked at the other patrons in the flea-bitten bar, Standing up, he swayed unsteadily on his feet, hitting his chest with his hand to emphasize what he was saying to the disinterested drinkers around him as he announced, "I was the one who made a man out of my kid, not his damn whore of a mother or that damn partner of his, Lieutenant bloody Stone! It was me! Me! And what happened after Stone stuck his nose into my Goddamn business? I'll tell you what Hell happened! My damn kid is now lying in a God damn hospital bed fighting for his life and it's all Lieutenant bloody Mike Stone's fault!"

Turning back towards the bar, Brian sat back down and picked up his drink, cradling it between his hands as he stared into the glass and muttered to himself, "All I wanted to do was put things right between the kid and myself, make it up to him for what he believes I did, but Stone had to stick his big bulbous nose in my business and screw everything up."

Lifting the glass back up to his lips, he paused as he felt the heavy weight shift in the pocket of his coat. A small vicious smile crept onto his lips as he placed the glass back down without taking a sip and reached into his pocket, lovingly fingering the heavy cigarette packet he had hidden there before his fingers glided across the cold metal of the barrel of the gun that he had managed to buy after his escape, that was snuggled beside it. The small vicious smile grew into a hatred filled snarl as he released the gun and reached into his other pocket. Pulling out the envelope, he removed his last few dollar notes from it and threw them on the bar before he asked the barman for a pen and a piece of paper. Accepting the pen and paper that the bored bartender handed him, he quickly scrawled Steve's name on the top of the front of the envelope before he wrote down everything he wanted the brat to know, just in case Stone managed to get in the way again and stop him from seeing his kid. Finishing his hastily scrawled ramblings, he folded the piece of paper, shoving it into the envelope before scribbling Steve’s name across the front and putting it back into his pocket.

After handing the pen back to the barman, Brian reached for the glass of bourbon, swallowing the rest of his drink in one large gulp before slamming the empty glass on top of the money. Rising from his bar stool, he turned and staggered, determinedly, towards the door. He was going to see his kid and this time Stone was not going to be able to stop him. In fact, Stone was never going to be able to stick his nose into anyone else's business where it didn't belong ever again, he would make sure of that.


	17. Chapter 17

Sitting in the chair close to Steve's bed, Roy tiredly ran a hand over his face and sighed. He had always felt proud of himself that he knew his men well but in the last thirty-six hours he discovered that he really did not know any of them as well as he thought. He sighed again, staring at the still young man lying in the bed as he wondered just how much about his partner's childhood Mike knew before he started his own investigation of Brian Keller and just how much about his abusive childhood at the hands of the man who was supposed to love and protect him that Steve had kept to himself.

A soft noise behind him pulled him out of his morose musings, and he looked up into his wife's face as she gently placed her hand on his shoulder and kissed the top of his head.

"How's he doing?" she asked softly looking at Steve's motionless form as she walked around and sat in the chair beside Roy.

"No change," Roy sighed as he returned his attention back to the young man in the bed.

"But that's a good thing, isn't it?" Sandra smiled as she reached across and grabbed Roy's hand, adding, "Because it means that he's not any worse."

"I guess so," Roy answered, not totally convinced by his wife's positive answer. Looking back at her, he asked, "How's Mike?"

"Stable and sound asleep. The nurse told us that he will probably sleep until late tomorrow morning. Bill and I managed to convince Jeannie that she should go home and get some sleep, that there is nothing more that she could do here tonight. Poor kid barely managed to sleep at all last night. She only agreed after I promised her that the two of us would stay tonight, in case either Mike or Steve needs us, and that we will call her immediately if anything happens. Bill's just taken her home and promised that he will stay with her."

Roy nodded as he returned his attention back to the man in the bed.

"Did you contact Rudy?" Sandra frowned, watching her husband closely.

"Yeah, he's going to update the chief and will probably come to hospital first thing in the morning. He was going to come tonight but I told him that there was nothing he could do here that we are not already doing and that is waiting. He wants to be keep updated on Mike's and Steve's conditions."

Sandra nodded as she squeezed her husband's hand, "You know what happened to Steve and Mike wasn't your fault, don't you? I mean, Sweetheart, you didn't give up looking for them after everyone else believed they were both dead. If it wasn't for you pushing the investigations into both of their… accidents… both would never have been rescued because no one would have known what really happened to them or the danger they were in."

"I know…" Roy murmured as he turned to face his wife, "It's not that, it's…"

Hearing a sudden commotion and yelling outside in the corridor, Roy quickly rose from his chair, the conversation he was just having with his wife, totally forgotten as he drew his gun. Looking down at Sandra he softly ordered, "Stay here."

Sandra looked terrified as she reached for her husband, grabbing his leg, momentarily stopping him. "What's going on, Roy?" she whispered.

"I don't know, I'm going to see, but I want you to stay here and don't make a noise," Roy whispered softly as he grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze as he removed it from his leg before he headed towards to the door.

"Please, be careful!" Sandra murmured fearfully as she watched her as her husband reached the door and carefully poked his head out into the corridor.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Placing the chart, she had been checking, back onto the desk in front of her, the nurse looked up as she heard the door leading into the ICU open. She frowned, glancing up at the wall clock before she watched the dark-haired man stagger into the ward. Her frown deepened as she realized the unexpected and unwelcome late-night visitor appeared to be heavily intoxicated as he made his way, unsteadily, towards her.

Quickly stepping around the desk, she hurried down the short corridor towards him, hoping to stop him from entering the ward any further than he already had and possibly waking any of her sleeping, critically ill patients. Forcing a warm smile as she reached him, she gently grabbed his arm, in an attempt to turn him around and steer him out of the ward as he told him quietly, "I'm sorry, Sir, but it's a little too late for any of our patients to receive visitors, maybe you can come back …"

"Get out of my way, no wanna be Florence bloody Nightingale bitch is gunna tell me when I can, and I can't see my own kid! Not you, not that dead bitch of my wife or that bastard, Stone." Brian slurred drunkenly, violently pushing the young nurse out his way, slamming her bodily back up against the nurse's station as he continued on his way down the corridor, looking into each room he passed. "And if I want to see my brat, I will, and no one's gunna stop me!"

Pushing herself away from the desk, the nurse tried to reach for the man's arm, attempting to stop him. "Sir," she tried more firmly again, only to freeze in fright when he turned back towards her, holding a gun in his hand. Time felt like it had liquefied, and she felt that she was moving through water as she saw the look of hatred in his eyes. She could smell the overpowering odor of the liquor on his breath as he grabbed the front of her uniform, roughly pulling her closer.

"I told you to get the hell out of my way, Bitch, but just like that like my whore of a wife, you just can't do what you are told," he snarled in her face.

She felt his spittle hit her face before he slapped her across the face with the gun, knocking her to the ground. She watched in terror as he pointed the gun towards her.

"Looks like I am going to have to teach you the same lesson, I had to teach her. Keep ya damn mouth shut and don't try and tell me what to do," Brian slurred as he reached down unsteadily and roughly pulled her back up onto her feet, raising his gun to hit her again.

Recognizing the voice of the dark-haired man he was now witnessing assaulting the young nurse, Roy raised his own gun as he stepped out into the ICU corridor and yelled, "Keller!"

Startled by the unexpected call of his name called, Brian spun the nurse around and pulled her tightly against his chest, pressing the gun against her head before he slowly turned to face the lieutenant who had only hours earlier had threatened him with spending the rest of his life in prison, standing in the doorway of one of the patient's rooms, holding a gun aimed at him and his terrified hostage.

"Drop the gun, Keller, and let her go!" Roy ordered again.

"Want to be a hero, do ya? Or are ya trying to stop me seeing my own kid, just like this bitch," Brian slurred, pressing the gun harder against the nurse's head as he forced her to take an unsteady step towards Roy, "and that bastard, who all you goddamn cops, including my kid, seems to worship, the great bloody Lieutenant Michael Stone, tried to do?"

"I said drop the weapon!" Roy ordered firmly, his gun never wavering as he heard Sandra's terrified whisper from somewhere near Steve's bed.

"Please be careful, Roy."

"I said get out of my way, Steve's my kid and if I want to see him, I will, and nobody, not you, not Stone, not this bitch is gunna stop me!" Brian slurred again, his finger tightening on the trigger as his face grew red and he forced the nurse to take another step towards the armed police officer standing in front of her critically ill patient's room door. "He's my kid…"

The sound of angry shouting pulled Mike from the warm, painless darkness in which he had been cocooned and he struggled to open his eyes as he rolled his head in the direction of angry voices. He found himself staring at two blurry figures who suddenly appeared just outside his door as he heard Roy's shouted order, "I said drop the gun and let the nurse go! Now!"

Blinking hard to bring the two figures into focus, Mike 's breath caught in his throat.

"If you don't want to see this bitch's brains blown all over the place, get out of my way and let me see my kid!"

One of the figures standing in his doorway was Steve's father, Brian Keller and he was holding a gun to the head of one of the nurses as he demanded to see his son. Gritting his teeth, Mike rolled as far as he could onto his side, ignoring the agony that tore through his suspended leg and battered body as he grabbed the raised bed rail and struggled to sit up a little as he weakly called out, "Brian."

Roy felt his heart miss a beat as he heard Mike weakly call the belligerent drunk man's name and he watched in horror as Keller spun around, using the nurse to shield him as he aimed the gun into Mike's room, screaming, "This is all your fault, Stone! You should have kept your God damn nose out of my business. Steve's my kid, not yours!"

"Drop the gun!" Roy ordered again as the nurse saw her only chance to escape while Brian was distracted and broke free, running towards the safety of the nurse's station.

Roy wasn't certain if he had fired his gun first or Brian had, the two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, amid the terrified screams of the nurses and his wife. He watched, his gun still trained on Brian's chest, as Brian slowly turned back to face him, blood blossoming out from a small red hole in the middle of his chest. Brian had a look of shock and surprise on his face as the gun slipped from his hand and cluttered noisily onto the white tiles. He took a small flattering step towards Roy, silently mouthing Steve's name before he collapsed to the ground.

Keeping his gun aimed at the downed man, Roy cautiously stepped across to Keller's motionless body and picked up Keller's dropped weapon, safely tucking it into the back of his belt before turning and pressing his fingers against Brian's throat, checking for a pulse. The soft weak thump beneath his fingertips instantly told him his shot had not been fatal and he quickly grabbed his handcuffs from his belt and non-too gently snapped them around the unconscious man's wrists before he rose and called over his shoulder to the frightened medical staff. "He's alive!"

Taking a deep breath, he slowly turned towards Mike's room, whispering a silent prayer that Brian's shot had not found its mark as he slowly entered the dimly light room.


	18. Chapter 18

Desperately scanning the room to find some sort of weapon to use to protect the young man in the bed if she needed to, Sandra grabbed metal chart holder hanging at the foot of the bed. It was not much of a weapon, but it was all that she had. Biting her bottom lip, she stepped between Steve's bed and the door, holding metal chart holder tightly in front of her, prepared to try and inflict as much damage as she could if the man managed to get past Roy and into the room. She held her breath as the man's rambling threats got closer as Roy ordered him several times to put down his gun.

She jumped as she heard two gunshots just outside in the corridor. She gripped the metal chart tighter and lifted it up, ready to use it if she needed to as she tried hard not to let her fear that Roy might have been shot overwhelm her. Holding her breath, she waited for something to happen in the silence that followed.

"He's alive!"

She released the breath, that she did not even realize she was holding, as she heard Roy's voice. Lowering the metal chart folder back down, she turned to place it on the bedside table as her eyes drifted to Steve. He had not moved or even reacted to all the commotion or noise just outside his hospital room. Biting her bottom lip, she tried to decide whether she should stay with Steve as Roy had told her to do or go out and make sure the Roy was really safe now the threat was now over. She turned her head and stared at the door as several ICU nurses rushed past. The need to see Roy and reassure herself that he was safe was just too great to ignore and she turned back to Steve, lightly brushing an errant strand of hair back off his forehead before she grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. Leaning down, she whispered into his ear, "I'll be right back, Sweetie, I promise."

Straightening back up, she turned and hurried to the door before she stepped out into the corridor and cautiously looked around. Several nurses and doctors were hurrying across to where Steve's father was lying, handcuffed on the floor, bleeding from what she assumed was a gunshot wound. Edging a little nearer, she gasped as she stared down at Brian's pale face, now half covered with the oxygen mask that the nurse had slid gently over his face. It was easy to see the close family resemblance shared between Steve and his father.

Looking up as she saw Roy hesitate in front of Mike's door before he entered the room as two police officers entered the ICU, their guns drawn, ready for any potential threat.

"It's okay, Guys, your lieutenant already has the situation under control," one of the doctors called out, glancing over his shoulder towards the two officers before he knelt and turned his attention back to the injured man on the floor.

Edging her way past Brian and the medical staff who were working on him, she followed her husband into Mike's room.

"Mike?" Squinting in the dim light at the motionless figure in the bed, Roy quickly crossed to bed, "Mike?"

A soft moan answered him, and he gave a soft sigh of relief as he found himself looking down at Mike's pained-pinched, worried face looking back up at him as he reached the side of the bed. Reaching for the bed's overhead light switch, he flicked it on as he turned and began to visually look Mike over, searching for any signs of blood or injury as he asked worriedly, "Mike, are you okay?"

Mike swallowed hard and nodded as he tried to ignore the white-hot bolts of agony that flared out from his back and radiated up through his injured leg, leaving him feeling lightheaded and nauseous. "I'm...I'm okay, he missed," he gasped out through gritted teeth as he reached up for Roy's sleeve to ensure he had his friend's total attention before he asked fearfully, "What…what about Steve? Is… he okay?"

"He's okay, Mike!" Sandra announced from the doorway as she turned on the room's overhead light, bathing the room in its bright fluorescent light. She forced a small reassuring smile as she walked across to the side of the bed. Reaching for Mike's hand, she gave it a light, re-assuring squeeze. "Steve's safe, don't worry," she smiled as she cast a side-ward glance at Roy before glancing at the small bullet hole a little higher in the wall then the height of the bed's railings that Roy staring at.

She tried to push away the realization of just how close Steve's father, in his drunken rage, had come to murdering Mike in his hospital bed. Looking back down at Mike, she squeezed his hand hard, "And so are you."

"What… what about … Keller?" Mike gasped breathlessly, his concern for his young friend, greater than the concern for his own safety as he looked up at Roy and tried hard to warn him, "Don't…don't let him ... anywhere near…Steve. He…he…"

"Don't worry about Keller tonight, Mike, the only place he will be going is the operating room and then he will be handcuffed to a bed, closely guarded by one our guys when he goes to recovery." Roy re-assured his friend before he glanced over his shoulder, just in time to see a stretcher bearing Brian Keller and surrounded by medical staff being rushed past the doorway. Turning back to Mike, he quietly explained, uncertain of how coherent Mike was with all the pain medication or if Mike would even remember most of what had just happened in the morning, "He took a nurse hostage and then started shooting, I had to put a round in his chest to take him down."

Mike swallowed hard and nodded remembering the blurry image he had awoken to of Brian Keller standing in his doorway, holding a nurse while demanding to see Steve replayed over in his fuzzy mind.

A light knock at the door, caught Roy's attention and he turned to see a young uniformed officer standing there.

"Umm, excuse me, Lieutenant, but I think you might want to see this," the officer quietly announced, nodding down at the cigarette box he was holding in a handkerchief in his hand.

"I'll be right back." Roy told Mike and his wife before he turned and hurried to the door where the officer was waiting.

Reaching the officer, Roy carefully took the carefully wrapped cigarette box that the officer offered him and frowned as he felt some weight inside it, "What's this?"

"We found this in the pocket in the coat that shooter was wearing, Sir. I opened it up because it felt so heavy and it's full of what looks like diamonds," the officer informed him softly as Roy carefully lifted the cigarette box's lid and peered inside, unable to stop the surprised gasp that escaped from between his lips as he stared at the missing precious stones inside. "I thought you would want to see it right away."

Roy nodded silently before the officer also handed him a envelope, "I also found this. It’s…um…it’s addressed to Inspector Keller."

Glancing back at his wife to make sure that she was not listening, Roy stepped out into the corridor before he carefully opened the unsealed envelope and glanced at the handwritten letter. Looking back up at the officer and asked, "Have you read this?"

"No, Sir, as soon as I found the diamonds, I thought I better hand it over to you." The officer answered as he watched the Homicide Lieutenant's eyes grow wide as he read the letter.

"Thanks," Roy murmured distractedly, waiting until the officer moved away before he walked across to the nurse's station and leaning against it, re-read the letter that was scrawled in Brian Keller's messy, almost illegible handwriting. Swallowing hard, he could taste the sour bile that rose in the back of his throat as he re-folded the letter and placed it back into the envelope. He turned and stared at Steve's ICU room, uncertain of just what he should do with the letter.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Keeping her light, and hopefully comforting, hold on Mike's hand, Sandra frowned, turning slightly to watch as her husband hurried from the room, dodging around the nurse entering as he reached the doorway. Forcing a small smile, she turned back to the injured man in the bed as the nurse quickly glanced up at the figures flashing on the heart monitor machine before gently lifting away the sheet the Mike had entangled himself with and checking his surgical dressings and many bruises.

Sandra felt Mike's hand tighten around her as he tried hard not to moan and pull away as the nurse quickly shone a torch in first one eye and then the other.

"Almost done," the nurse murmured gently, acutely aware that her patient was in pain as she popped a thermometer under his tongue before she carefully palpated his stomach with her fingers, hearing Mike's soft groan as the tender area was prodded. Feeling no significant rigidity, she straightened up and removed the thermometer, lifting the narrow glass tubing up towards the light, nodding to herself, before she flicked her wrist several times, forcing the mercury in the thin glass tube to return to the tube's bulb before placing it back into the small kidney tray on the table next to the bed.

Satisfied her patient had not been injured further or aggravated his already serious injuries, she carefully readjusted the sheet, covering him to his chest before she told him softly that she was going to give him something for the pain.

"No…no, I …don't want…anything," Mike protested weakly as he looked up pleadingly at Sandra, his grip on her hand tightening even more, "Steve…"

"Shh, Mike, try and rest." Sandra tried to soothe the upset man, still clutching his hand as she placed her other hand against his cheek as the nurse quickly drew up some medication from a transparent glass vial and injected it into the IV line.

"Please … promise me…don't won't let … Keller … nnnear… Sssteve," Mike mumbled, almost incoherently, as his voice trailed away and his eyes slowly drifted closed as the nurse finished injecting the mild sedative the doctor had ordered into his IV port.

"We won't, Mike, I promise," Sandra whispered as she lightly squeezed his hand, "Steve's safe, his father won't get anywhere near him."

Re-sheaving the used needle and dropping it into the small green kidney dish, the nurse quickly glanced up at the heart monitor above the bed, satisfied with what she saw before she looked across the bed at Sandra and smiled, "I just gave him something for the pain and to help him relax, he should sleep for the rest of the night."

"Thank you," Sandra murmured, still holding Mike's hand as she watched the nurse write on the chart notes clipped to the clipboard that was hanging at the end of the bed.

The nurse smiled and nodded, "Why don't you try and get a few hours' sleep, yourself? Or can I get you a cup of coffee? It's not the best coffee around, in fact, to be honest, it probably tastes a little bit like toxic sludge by now…"

Sandra shook her head, "No, I'm good."

"Well if you change your mind, just let me know," the nurse told her softly before turning and leaving the room, side stepping around the puddle of blood where Brian Keller had fallen in the corridor.

Turning back to Mike, Sandra watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest until she was satisfied that he was truly asleep. Carefully placing his hand back down onto the bed, she stroked his cheek lightly again as she whispered to the now unconscious man, "I'm going to check on Steve, Mike, I promise I will be back soon."

Turning she walk to the door and paused, frowning, as she saw Roy standing next to the nurse's desk, holding an envelope in his hand as he stared at Steve's room. Her frown deepened as Roy quickly glanced around before he looked back down at the envelope in his hand. Intrigued by her husband's strange, clandestine behavior, she silently watched as Roy quickly folded the envelope in half before slipping it into his pocket as the ICU doors opened and more officers began to arrive.


	19. Chapter 19

Roy turned and sighed as he saw the two IA officers hurry through the ICU doors and look around. He knew that I.A. would be called to investigate his shooting of Brian Keller, he had just not expected them to arrive so fast. He blinked in surprise as he slowly looked around and noticed for the first time just how many uniformed and how many of his own homicide team were already here, already taking statements from the staff, bagging and tagging evidence, and kicking off the intense investigation that any shooting by a cop causes. He licked his lips as he realized that some of them had probably been waiting out in the waiting room for some sort of update on their two colleagues when the shooting had occurred, and that was probably the reason why the two-armed uniform officers had rushed in, almost immediately after the gunfire.

Watching the two IA men as they spoke to the officer who was now guarding the ICU entrance door, who then turned and pointed towards him, he jumped as he felt a small familiar hand lightly touched his shoulder before he heard Sandra whisper into his ear, "The nurse gave Mike something for the pain and to help him sleep until morning."

Roy nodded and patted Sandra's hand as he continued to watch the two A.I men as they walked towards him.

"Roy is everything okay?" she asked softly as she felt the tension in her husband's body.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Roy murmured distractedly, unconsciously reaching into his pocket and pushing the envelope a little deeper inside as he eyed the two IA officer approaching him. Turning to his wife, he forced a small smile, “Listen Sweetheart, I have some work to do. Why don't you go and sit with Steve and I will join you as soon as I can.”

Looking at the two IA officers who had joined them beside the nurse's desk, Sandra hesitated for a moment before reluctantly nodding and walking away. She paused as she reached the door to Steve's hospital room and glanced back at her husband who had turned his back to her and was now talking softly to the two IA officers. Biting her bottom lip with worry, she turned and walked into the room, wondering about the envelope that she had seen Roy slip into his pocket and why Roy had just blatantly lied to her.

Turning back to look at the motionless man in the bed, she also wondered about the young man's past and why no one seemed to have known anything about his father even being alive until the last few tortuous days.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Turning back to the two IA officers, Roy waited a heartbeat until he knew his wife had left before he nodded and said, "Nat, Paul, I wasn't expecting you to get here so fast."

Glancing around at the officers who were softly questioning the shaken medical staff and the pool of blood, currently being photographed by a police photographer near the door of one of the ICU rooms, before returning his attention back to the Homicide lieutenant standing in front of him, Nat Schreiner sighed, "We heard about what happened to Stone and Keller and then when we got the report about a cop involved shooting here in the ICU…"

"You knew it just had to be related."

"Yeah," Nat sighed again as he glanced over Roy's shoulder at the room where he had seen Sandra go into before he looked back at Roy and asked, "How are Keller and Stone? Word on the grapevine is they are not doing too good."

"Mike's critical but stable, he took a round in the back and was busted up some before we could rescue him, the docs say his recovery could be a long one but he's looking good for a full recovery." Roy began slowly.

"And Keller?"

"It's touch and go at the moment, the docs just don't know." Roy answered honestly.

"I heard that his father was somehow involved in what happened?" Paul Anderson frowned as he grabbed Roy's arm and led him away from the nurse's desk and to a more secluded area away from all the activity, so nobody could overhear their conversation.

"He's responsible for this whole mess and was the reason behind both Mike and Steve being grabbed." Roy rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, glancing back down the corridor in the direction from which they had just come, at Mike's and Steve's rooms. "And he's the man I shot tonight after he turned up drunk and took a nurse hostage, threatening to kill her if he wasn't allowed to see his son. He didn't leave me with any other option than to take him down after he started shooting."

Nat nodded, "I spoke to some of the officers at the door, they confirmed that so far the witnesses' versions of events indicate that this was a justifiable shooting, Roy, I don't think you have anything to worry about. But you know the procedure, I'm afraid I will have to take your gun until our investigation are done."

Roy shrugged in acceptance of the lightly given order as he reached into his pocket and removed his gun from its holster, handing it across to the senior IA officer as well.

Anderson's frown deepened as he jotted down everything Roy was telling them into his notebook before casting a quick side-ward glance at his partner. Returning his attention back to the man standing in front of him after Homicide Lieutenant's weapon had been surrendered, he asked, "I don't understand, I was told that Keller had escaped this afternoon after you had arrested him in Steve's apartment and was on the run. Why would he risk coming here to see his son? From what I have heard, no one even knew that Keller's father was even alive until everything went down. Is it possible that Steve was somehow also involved in whatever his father was into?"

"No, no!" Roy quickly rushed to his young inspector's defence, "All our investigations so far and from the statement I was given by Brian Keller, himself, after his arrest this morning, indicate that Steve has not had any contact with his father since his mother's death in a car accident several years ago." Roy shifted uncomfortable as he looked around, reassuring himself that what he was about to say could not be overheard before he dropped his voice to just above a soft whisper as he added reluctantly, "His father was driving, drunk, the accident itself was ruled as a vehicular manslaughter, but…"

"But?" Nat pushed.

"Brian Keller had several prior convictions for DUI … and domestic violence."

"Against his wife?" Paul asked, as he realized where this conversation was going.

Roy nodded slowly as he added quietly, "Also, against his son. At the time of the accident Steve's parents were separated, and Steve had just gone away to University…"

"And Steve believes-" Nat breathed, finally understanding why Roy believed that there would be no chance of father and son being involved in any crime, or anything else, together.

Roy nodded again, "I don't think Steve has ever told anyone about his childhood or the circumstances surrounding his mother's death, except Mike, and how much or just how little he has actually told Mike is anyone guess, only Mike can tell us that and I doubt Mike would ever tell us whatever Steve has told him in confidence. But what we do know is after Keller was released from jail, he was trying to contact his son, he told me that he just wanted to make things right between him and Steve, but Mike found out that Keller was trying to contact Steve and we believe Mike tried to run interference."

"And what about the kidnappings?"

"Keller's a con man, through and through, with no other interest about anything or anyone else, other than make easy money with very little effort. While in jail, he was cellmates with Sam Quintin."

"Isn't that the guy who robbed the diamond exchange a few years ago?" Paul paused in taking notes as he looked back up at Roy.

"That's the guy. Keller told us that he had promised Quintin that he would retrieve the diamonds from their hiding place when he was released and hold them for Quintin until Quintin made his escape."

"But he got greedy." Nat breathed, having seen the same scenario happen again and again between criminals.

"We found half of the diamonds in Keller's possession during his arrest," Roy lifted up the cigarette box he held in his hand, handing it across to Nat, who opened the flap and glanced at the contents, giving a soft whistle of surprise as he stared at the shining stones within as Roy continued, "And we found these in Keller's coat pocket, which he is where we believe he had also hidden the gun."

"The nurse said he was here, wanting to see Steve." Nat looked up at Roy as he passed the cigarette box across to his partner to see, "As Paul has already asked, Roy, have you got any idea why Keller would take such a risk coming here? He must have known that the place would be swarming with cops waiting for updates on Stone's and his son's conditions."

"Who knows! We know that Keller doesn't a damn about his about his son, his violence placed Steve in the hospital more than once when Steve was a child. We also know that Keller blamed Mike's interference for everything going wrong with his little scheme of ripping off the diamonds, and he seems to have the belief that Mike is trying to take his place as Steve's father figure. Maybe he believes that if he can somehow implicate Steve in his scheme, he can punish Mike." Roy shrugged as his hand slid into his pocket and he unconsciously fingered the envelope hidden there as his attention was drawn to the surgeon who was still dressed in his blue surgical scrubs hurry down the corridor towards them as he added, "I guess that the only one who can tell us the reason why he was here is Brian Keller, himself, after he gets out of surgery."

"I'm afraid that Mr Keller won't be answering any of your questions, Lieutenant," the surgeon announced breathlessly, hearing only the last part of the whispered conversation between the three men as he reached them. "He died on the operating table five minutes ago."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Sandra turned her head and gently kissed the familiar, gentle hand that she felt settle on her shoulder.

"How is he?" Roy asked softly as he stared at the motionless man in the bed.

"No change," Sandra sighed, tilting her head until her cheek rested on her husband's hand as she looked back at Steve, and added, "But at least he's seems to be holding his own at the moment." Lifting her head as she looked up at her husband, she asked, "Are the I.A guys gone?"

Roy nodded as he sat down in the chair next to hers, "They left about an hour ago. I gave them my initial statement about what happened, but I will have to go in later this morning and give them my full written statement. I've already handed over my gun and I guess I will be back on desk duty for the next few days until they finish the investigation of the shooting ... especially when the shooting was fatal."

"He died?" Sandra gasped in surprise.

"About an hour ago on the operating table."

"But you will be cleared, won't you? I mean you didn't really have a choice, if you hadn't shot …" Sandra swallowed hard as she threw a quick glance towards Steve before she looked back at Roy and lowered her voice to a very soft whisper, "Was that really Steve's father?... I mean… I guess I always thought-"

"We all did." Roy told her quietly.

"But why would Steve…"

"He had his reasons, Sweetheart," Roy answered her partially asked question evasively. He sighed and squeezed the bridge of his nose, suddenly feeling extremely tired and old. Reaching into his pocket, he fingered the folded envelope still hidden there as he looked back at Steve and murmured, almost as if he was talking to himself, "He had his reasons…"

Biting her bottom lip, Sandra frowned and nodded slowly, aware that Roy's answer meant that it was really none of her business. Turning back towards the bed, Sandra remembered listening to Keller's drunken shouted demands and threats during his attempt to see his son and Mike's own fears of Keller getting anywhere close to Steve and Roy's own refusal of telling her why Steve had been so secretive with them about his father suddenly made so much sense. Her heart skipped a beat as a disturbing thought popped into her mind, one that she unable to push away, the timing was just too co-incidental. Looking sidewards at her silent husband in the dim light of the overhead bed light, she asked softly, "His father somehow is involved in this whole mess, wasn't he? He was somehow the reason for everything that's happened."

Without taking his eyes off Steve, Roy gave her a terse small nod, "Yeah, he was."

"Do you think Steve knew?" Sandra asked, returning her attention back to the unconscious man in the bed.

"About what his father was up to or that his father was involved in what happened to both Mike and him?"

"Both, I guess." Sandra frowned, aware that there was so much about what had happened to Steve and Mike that she still didn't know about.

Roy shook his head, "I think Steve was totally blind-sided. I doubt when he was grabbed, he even had a clue what was going on…"

"And Mike?"

"I think Mike had his suspicions but to be honest, I don't think he even realized the danger they were in, until it was too late. But from what we were told by the suspects, no matter what either Mike and Steve knew or didn't know about who or what the reason was behind their kidnappings, they both tried hard to protect each other, even risking their own lives to do so. Steve, even though he had been severely beaten, made a grab for one of the guns that the suspects were holding on them in an effort to give Mike a chance to escape." Roy mumbled tiredly as he continued to stare at Steve, "And then after Mike got shot during Steve's struggle with one of the suspects for possession of the gun and still had the chance to get away, he refused to do so without Steve. There was no way that one was going to leave the other behind…Then after we rescued Steve, he…he blamed himself for Mike's death. He told us to know that it was his fault… wanted us to tell Jeannie that he was sorry" Roy shook his head as he re-lived those few minutes in the cabin again, "He blamed himself for something his father was responsible for!"

"Oh, Roy!" Sandra whispered shocked.

Taking a deep trembling breath, Roy murmured softly, "And when we found Mike, the first thing he wanted to know if Steve was safe."

Sandra nodded, shocked by the details about the case that Roy was sharing with her. She waited see if Roy would continue, not wanting to push him to do so but wanting him to get it off his chest before it started to tear him up inside. Hearing a soft snore beside her, she turned and looked at him. Shaking her head, she rose to her feet and walked across to the table near the wall, picking up the folded blanket that was sitting on top of it. Walking back to the chair where Roy had fallen asleep, she carefully unfolded the blanket and lovingly covered him with it, tucking it securely around him before she gently kissed the top of his head.

Sitting back down on her own chair, she turned and stared at the young man in the bed, her heart breaking for Steve as she imagined the kind of secrets about his childhood, and the kind of relationship that he must have had with his father, that he had tried so hard to hide from everyone.


	20. Chapter 20

Mike wasn't sure just what had woken him, whether it was the pain that seemed to emanate from all parts of his body, or the dull headache and low-grade fever he instinctively knew he was running, or the high-pitched sound of some kind of alarm from another room somewhere close to his own and the sound of running feet. Forcing his eyes open, he blinked in the muted daylight that now lit his room and turned his head slightly, looking towards his limited view of the door as a collection of jumbled memories of what had happened during the last few days slowly returned, ending with Brian Keller's drunken demands and threats to see his son and subsequent shooting outside his door just hours ago. "Steve!" he gasped as he reached desperately for the bed rail in an attempt to sit up.

"Hey, whoa there, where do you think you are going?" The surgeon asked as he grabbed his patient by the shoulders and gently pushed him back against the pillows. "Your partner's safe, he's in the room next door, resting, just like you're supposed to be doing." The surgeon smiled as he straightened up, leaving one hand resting on Mike's shoulder, "In fact, Lieutenant, I've just finished examining him and his condition has stabilized overnight. It was touch and go there for a few hours …"

"How … bad?" Mike gasped as his injured ribs protested painfully at the very act of drawing a deeper breath to speak.

"You want to know just how badly you are injured?" the doctor asked gently.

Mike weakly shook his head, "No… not me…S…steve."

"Ah, of course, I should have known that's who you are asking about." The doctor shook his head in amusement after previously being warned by the other Homicide lieutenant, that would probably be the first question out of his patient's mouth when he awoke. Walking to the end of the bed, he carefully checked the system of ropes, weights, and pulleys which kept his patient's broken leg suspended in the air. Gently touching Mike's toes with the back of his hand to help check the leg's circulation, he looked back at Mike, "He's still listed as critical but has been upgraded to critical but stable." He paused a heartbeat before he began his report of Steve's condition to the worried man in the bed, "As you probably already know, your partner was severely beaten."

Mike swallowed hard and nodded as the battered image of Steve pushing him away, begging him to run, as they tried to make their escape, flashed vividly through his mind.

"He suffered several broken ribs, a broken arm, and cheekbone, as well as a concussion because of the beating, but unfortunately one of the broken ribs perforated his right lung and caused it to collapse and the right side of his chest to fill with blood." The doctor momentarily hesitated, deciding to skip over the inspector flat-lining during surgery, as he saw the fear in his patient's face. Quickly rushing on to reassure the lieutenant, he continued, "But we were able to repair the lung and I am pleased to say that it is slowly re-inflating. He is heavily sedated at the moment and we placed him on a ventilator to allow him to rest and gain some strength. We're also monitoring his condition closely for any complications or bleeding, but if he continues to improve as well as he has overnight, we will be able to remove him from the ventilator later this morning and will start to lower the sedation and allow him to wake up this afternoon."

Mike nodded again as he pushed the light sheet that covered him, off, suddenly feeling too hot as he shifted uncomfortably in the bed as the doctor walked back up to the head of the bed and reached for the thermometer, that was in a kidney dished filled with sterilizing liquid on the table next to the bed. "What…what about… Brian…Keller?" Mike panted breathlessly, finding it hard to draw in a deep enough breath to talk.

Holding the glass thermometer in his hand, the doctor gave three fast, quick flicks of his wrist to force the mercury in the thermometer back down into the bulb before he slipped it under Mike's tongue. Gently grabbing Mike's wrist, he took Mike's pulse as his eyes drifting to the bullet hole in the wall as he answered Mike's question "Mr Keller was shot in the chest last night by your lieutenant after he held a nurse hostage, and then tried to shoot up the ward. I'm afraid that he died on the operating table, there was nothing that we could do."

Lowering Mike's arm back to rest on the bed, the surgeon reached across to remove the thermometer before quickly glancing at the reading. Satisfied that even though his patient was running a low- grade fever, it was not high enough to be concerned about, he placed the thermometer back into the sterilizing liquid as he added, "I am sure that the lieutenant will fill you in on all the details when you are feeling a little stronger. But before he gives you any full detailed reports about the shooting or what happened to you and your partner yesterday, how about we take you back to the OR and set your leg correctly." The doctor lightly patted Mike's arm, adding, "And, maybe, just maybe, if your partner improves enough today to be taken off the vent and woken up, I might even consider breaking hospital protocol and change one of the unit's step-down rooms into a double-share intensive care room, after you return from surgery. That way we can continue to monitor you both closely, and you will rest instead of worrying about your partner's condition."

"Thanks, Doc," Mike whispered.

Looking back over his shoulder, the doctor nodded at the young woman standing in the doorway that it was okay for her to enter before he returned his attention back to his patient and smiled, "I will make the arrangements to take you back into the OR to fix your leg but first I think a young lady would like to say hello to her dad."

Turning, he stepped around Jeannie as she stepped timidly to the side of the bed. "I'm afraid you can only have five minutes and then we will be getting him ready to go back into surgery," he told her quietly before he headed towards the door.

"Thank you," Jeannie smiled shyly as she turned and watched the surgeon leave the room before she turned back and leaned down to kiss Mike's cheek, hugging him as tightly as she dared as she whispered, "Oh, Mike!"

Reaching for Jeannie's hand, Mike weakly squeezed it reassuringly as he reached up with his other hand and wiped away the errant tear that trickled down her face, "Don't cry... Sweetheart, ...everything's going... to be okay."

Unable to stop more tears from falling, Jeannie smiled as Mike repeated the same words he had told her after her mother had died. It was a promise he had kept and a promise she knew that he would keep again. Squeezing his hand a little tighter, she whispered through her tears," Oh Daddy, have I told you lately just how much I love you?"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Jumping in surprise as she felt someone brush against her, Sandra opened her eyes, surprised to find herself covered with the same blanket which she had covered Roy with after he had fallen asleep halfway through their conversation. Looking around she realized that Roy was no longer in the room with her, instead it was Jeannie stepping past her who had woke her out of the light sleep into which she had drifted. Sitting higher up in the chair, she watched as Jeannie reached the side of the bed and stood motionless, looking down at Steve, her hand hovering uncertainly above his.

"You won't hurt him if you want to hold his hand, in fact he would probably like to know that you are here." Sandra told Jeannie softly as she tried to discreetly rub her eyes, attempting to chase away the lingering tendrils of sleep from her mind, surprised that she must have drifted off to sleep sometime after the doctor had carried out his early morning examination of Steve and before Roy had woken up and left.

"How…how is he?" Jeannie whispered, making no move to hold Steve's hand.

"The doctor said that his condition has not only stabilized but has also improved a little, overnight," Sandra smiled as she sat up a little higher in the chair and looked across at the young man in the bed, relieved that she could finally see some color in his pale face, instead of the grey complexion she had seen earlier. "The doctor also said that hopefully, later today, if he keeps improving, they will be able to take him off the ventilator, and lower his sedation to allow him to wake up."

Jeannie nodded as she continued to stare down at Steve as her hand continued to hover above his, "That's what the doctor just told Mike…"

Watching the young girl closely, Sandra frowned, "How is Mike? I was going to try and slip back into his room to see him after the doctor finished making his rounds, but I guess I dozed off."

Jeannie swallowed hard as she blinked away the tears that threatened to fall, "He's doing much better. They're just preparing him to take him back into to surgery to fix his leg. The doctor told him that after he gets out of recovery and if Steve continues to improve, they will move both of them into a shared room, so they can be together."

Sandra nodded, "Good, after everything that's happened, they are both going to-"

"Did you know Steve's dad is alive? He's one who is responsible for everything that happened to Mike. I…I overheard two officers talking in the elevator about how he tried to kill Mike again last night, right here in the hospital…" Jeannie said softly, her voice cracking as she continued to stare at Steve. "Steve's Mike's partner, and Mike's supposed to be able to trust him. I... I just don't understand. Steve must have known what his father was up to and that his father could be dangerous! He had to!"

"Sweetheart-" Sandra began, rising to her feet, the blanket dropping to her feet as she took a step towards Jeannie.

"Why didn't he warn Mike?" Jeannie asked as she turned back to look at Sandra as the tears began to roll down her face as the fear, anger, and terror of the last forty-eight hours boiled over and spilled out, "Why did he let us all believe his father was dead?"

Grabbing Jeannie's hands, Sandra gave them a light squeeze as she shook her head and gently led Jeannie to one of the chairs before nodding for her to sit down, aware that emotions that Jeannie was dealing with was not actually directed at the young man in the bed but at what had happened and the unanswered questions that she desperately needed answers to. Even though Sandra did not yet have many of the answers Jeannie needed, she needed to contain and redirect the understandable anger and fear that Jeannie was feeling, after learning of the murder attempt on her critically ill father the night before, from Steve and onto the person who deserved it, Steve's father. Sitting in the other chair, she turned and faced Jeannie, still holding Jeannie's hand with one hand as she reached up and lovingly brushed a stray strand of hair away from Jeannie's face. "Listen Sweetheart, I know you are upset and scared about everything that has happened, and I do understand just how you are feeling, but you need to understand that what happened yesterday wasn't Steve's fault. I don't know why Steve never talked about his father or why he let us believe that his father was dead or maybe, we all just assumed his dad was dead because he never spoke about him. Roy told me Steve had his reasons but whatever happened between them, Roy's right, he told me that it's Steve's business and not ours.

Now, I don't know what just happened yesterday but from the little I have been told by Roy, he believes that Steve did not even know that his father was in San Francisco, but Roy thinks Mike did, and that Mike might have been trying to protect Steve by trying to stop Steve's father from contacting him. And that tells me, Jeannie, that Steve did tell Mike about his father, but just how much and what Steve told him is between Steve and Mike.

But what I do know, is Roy told me that the surviving suspects told them that Mike and Steve tried hard to protect each other. The suspects said that Steve, even though he was badly beaten, still risked his life trying to give Mike a chance to escape and Mike was shot because he refused to leave Steve behind. And last night, after even after everything that has happened, when Steve's father turned up here drunk, armed with a gun, and took a nurse hostage before demanding to see Steve, Mike risked his life again, trying to protect Steve. He called out to get Steve's father's attention when Steve's father was demanding to see Steve and when Steve's father turned and tried to shoot Mike, Roy had no choice but to shoot him" Glancing across at the unconscious man in the bed, Sandra lowered her voice to a whisper, "I don't know if you know but Steve's father died on the operating table a couple of hours ago."

Squeezing Jeannie's hand, a little harder, as she saw Jeannie's eyes grow wide and saw Jeannie glance across at Steve, she continued gently, "I'm guessing that somehow Steve and Mike realized that Steve's father was involved in their kidnappings while they were being held together. Roy told me that after they rescued Steve, Steve was blaming himself for what happened to Mike. He already feels responsible for his father's actions; he doesn't need us holding him responsible for his father's actions as well.

We also need to try and remember, that even though it looks like Steve's father was behind everything that happened, and no matter what ever happened between them, or how distant or close they might have been, he was still Steve's father, and Steve has just lost him on top of everything else that has happened." Sandra waited until Jeannie turned back towards her before she gently added, "Sweetheart, Steve is just as much a victim as Mike is, and he is going to need all our love and support to get through this, especially yours and Mike's. The two of you are the only family that Steve has now, do you think you can do that?"

Biting her bottom lip, Jeannie nodded, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, as she turned to look at Steve again, suddenly feeling extremely guilty and a little ashamed that she could even blame Steve for what had happened, "You're right, this wasn't Steve's fault. Oh God, I'm sorry, I don't know why I even said that..."

Sandra gave her a small smile as she placed an arm around Jeannie's shoulder and pulled her closer, laying her head on top of Jeannie's as she returned her attention back to the young man in the bed, "I do, the last day or so has been scary and confusing. First, believing that we had lost both Mike and Steve, and then after the relief of finding out that they were alive, the fear that we still might lose Steve."

"But I still shouldn't have …" Jeannie whispered guiltily.

"You were just scared, and you were upset after you heard about what happened here last night and who was responsible, and you were just lashing out," Sandra tried to reassure Jeannie that her reaction was natural as she lifted up her head and looked at the young scared girl sitting beside her as she said quietly, "And you just lashed out at the wrong person. We all make mistakes, but the most important thing now is that we are here for both Steve and your father. They are going to need us now more than ever to help them both with their recoveries."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Pushing away the file, that Roy had told him about last night after the hospital shooting, that Stone had collected on Brian Keller, Nat picked up his mug of coffee and leaned back in the chair. Taking a sip of the hot liquid, he stared at the door, deep in thought. The file was extensive and well researched. Mike had gone out of his way to find out as much as he could about his partner's father and his partner's past. Nat chewed the inside of his cheek as he wondered just what Keller had told his partner about his past. Whatever Keller had told him, it had been enough to make Stone unofficially investigate his father.

After reading the information that Mike had collected, he could understand why the Homicide lieutenant had warned Keller to stay away from his son after Brian had tried to contact Steve after his release from prison, if what Roy believed was true. Hell, if Paul's father had been anything like Brian Keller, and was trying to contact his young partner, Hell, he would have done the same thing. Reading the file that Mike had collected on the dead man, left him feeling sick to his stomach.

He jumped as his phone began to ring. Sitting up a little straighter on his chair, he put down his mug of coffee before snatching up the phone, "Schreiner, Internal Affairs." He listened to the operator on the other end of the line explain why she was calling him before he told her, "Okay, put her through." He waited a heartbeat as the operator connected the call, before he spoke again, "Sandra, this is Nat Schriener. I'm afraid the Roy is in a meeting at the moment…"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Grabbing the mug of coffee, Roy sat down at his desk before he lifted it to his lips, grimacing in disgust as he swallowed the last cold dregs of the thick, cold, black sludge. It was just the perfect way to finish of a very long morning full of paperwork, I.A interviews and numerous questions from the brass above not only about the fatal shooting of Brian Keller at the hospital overnight, which he had been assured would most likely be ruled as justifiable, but also the events that led up to it.

Placing the mug back down on the desk, Roy sighed, only too aware of the questioning that he had endured today was going to be tenfold worse for Mike and Steve. Although he was confident that both Mike and Steve would also be cleared of any wrongdoing, he knew that next few days for the partners and friends were going to be extremely challenging, both emotionally and mentally, especially for Steve.

His fingers drifted down to his pocket as his thoughts drifted to the younger man and he pulled out the letter that he had slipped into it earlier. Pulling the envelope free, he carefully unfolded it and re-read its contents. A cold chill rippled through his soul as he re-read Brian's final words to his son. He just could not believe that a father, any father, could be so incredibly cruel to their child, to blame their own son for being responsible for all the things that he had done, even blaming Steve for the death of his mother.

Keller had stated in the letter that the only reason why Steve's mother and Keller had been together the night of the fatal accident was because Keller wanted to reconcile with Steve and he thought if he wined and dined her, then she would tell him where Steve was. The accident was Steve's fault, it would never have happened if Steve had stayed in contact with him after his mother had kidnapped him and taken him away from his real home. The letter even included a wild claim that the diamonds that he stolen, he had stolen for Mike. He claimed that Mike had demanded the diamonds as payment for Mike convincing Steve to reconcile with him. He claimed that he loved his son so much that he was willing to do what Stone demanded and steal the diamonds just to reconnect with him.

Roy swallowed hard, his hand shaking with anger, as he roughly folded the letter back up before stuffing it back into the envelope and shoving it back into his pants' pocket, deciding that maybe the best thing to do with it would be to burn it when he got home. Reading the vile letter was the last thing, after everything his father had made him endure through his life, that Steve really needed to read.

Also, Brian's obviously drunk ramblings in the letter could be too easily misconstrued as a confession by Brian of not only his but also Mike's supposed guilt of being responsible for the events of the last two days by anyone investigating Mike's and Steve’s kidnappings. But Roy knew that Brian Keller's motives were far sinister and crueller than just that, he wanted to place the guilt and blame on what he had done squarely on his son's shoulders and he wanted to drive a wedge between Steve and the man who had treated Steve more like a son than he had ever done.

Pushing away from his desk, he turned and grabbed his coat from the coat rack in the corner of the office as he promised himself that this weekend when the boys came home from University, he was going to hug them tight and make sure they knew just how much he loved them.

Shrugging into his coat, he turned towards the door, tugging at his coat and straightening it up so it fell properly as it snagged on something. He stopped his egress from the room as he looked up and saw Nat Schreiner standing in the doorway, watching him. "Nat," he sighed tiredly, "I thought I have finished answering all of your questions."

The I.A officer gave a quick tired smile and nodded, "You have, Roy, for now. But that's not why I'm here."

Roy frowned and said nothing as he began to button up his coat and waited for Nat to continue.

"I just wanted to catch you before you left to let you know that Sandra called while you were in with the Chief, so they transferred her call across to me. She asked me to tell you that Mike has just come out of surgery to set his broken leg and that the surgeon said the surgery went well. The surgeon told Jeannie that with some rest and a lot of physiotherapy, he should regain the full use of his leg."

"Thank God," Roy smiled with relief as he took a few more steps towards the door.

"Hold it, Roy, I'm afraid that's not the only reason why I came down to see you," Nat sighed as he took a couple of steps into the office, stopping Roy before he could step past him and leave. He waited until he had Roy's full attention again before he added, "Look, Roy, Sandra also told me that you had spoken to the surgeon and had convinced him to move Steve and Mike into the same room when Steve was stable enough and after Mike's surgery."

"That's right," Roy's eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion as he stared at the other man, "Everyone knows how close Mike and Steve have become since becoming partners, I just think that they are going to need each other now, more than ever, to help each other recover and move on after everything that has happened… "

Nat nodded his agreement, "I agree one hundred percent, Roy, but I'm afraid that for the moment, Steve and Mike sharing a room is just not going to happen-"

"Nat-" Roy began to protest.

"Now Roy, I have already copped heat from both Jeannie and Sandra for having to put my foot down and nixing your plans. But we both already know that until our investigation is done, they can't see each other until we do their individual interviews about what happened and get their independent statements." Nat reminded Roy firmly before he lightly touched Roy on the arm, "Look, Roy, we both know that this whole case has turned into a media circus, first with a young Homicide inspector presumed dead after a fiery crash in his unmarked police car and then the case turning into the kidnapping and torture case of not only that officer, but his senior partner as well, all linked to a diamond heist that happened several years ago where the loot was never recovered. Add into that juicy mixture, not only is an escaped prisoner also involved but Keller's own father, who was also up to his neck in this whole mess, and who I don't think I have to remind you, was later shot and killed by one by yet another Homicide officer while trying to get to see his son.

What a story! The press is already clamoring for every juicy little detail, every little scrap that they can use to turn this into one hell of a soap-time drama, full of intrigue, drama and possible police corruption and starring the Homicide officers of San Francisco police department.

Look, we both know that Keller and Stone are innocent, I have already read the jacket we have on Brian Keller and the file Stone collected on him and to be frank, Roy, I would have personally loved to have got my hands around that man's neck for what he did to not only his wife but also his son. But if we are going to save both the San Francisco P.D's reputation and Mike's and Steve's careers and prove to the public that both Steve and Mike were not any involvement in any of this mess other than being innocent victims, then we have to do this investigation by the book and if that means separating them until we do our interviews, then, God damn it, Roy, that's what I am going to do!"

Roy sighed and nodded. "You're right, Nat," he agreed unhappily.

Squeezing Roy's arm, a little tighter, Nat tried to reassure the upset officer, "Look, I promise as soon as I have finished my interviews with both Mike and Steve, and we have their statements, I will be the first one insisting that they are allowed to share a room."

Roy nodded, unconvinced of the I.A' officer's promise as he shrugged free of Nat's light hold and asked, "Is that all?"

"Yeah, that's all," Nat nodded as Roy stepped around him and walked out of the small office without saying another word.

Watching the angry Homicide lieutenant leave, Nat ran a hand over his face. This was the part of the job he hated the most, not the catching the bad cops and weeding them out, but having to investigate the good ones under the suspicious eyes of his angry colleagues who always seemed to believe that he just wanted to find every cop he was investigating guilty when in fact, he always hoped he could clear them of any wrongdoing.

Sighing as he looked down, Nat frowned, as he found himself looking at the folded envelope that must have fallen out of Roy's pocket as Roy had been putting on his coat. Reaching down, he picked the folded envelope, unconsciously tapping it against his other hand as he looked back up and stared at the now empty doorway.


	21. Chapter 21

"Nat!" Nat watched as his partner hurried across to Roy's small office to join him. The excited look on Paul's face, and the way he clutched his open notebook in his hand, instantly told the senior IA officer that his partner had discovered some new evidence. "I checked with the prison if Keller had any contact with his father or Quintin while they were in prison." Paul announced as he joined his partner.

"And?" Nat asked, distractedly dropping the envelope back on Roy's desk before he turned and walked out of the office with his partner.

"The warden said that Keller had no contact at all with either his father or Quintin during the whole time his father was incarcerated, in fact, the warden told me that Keller even refused to accept any of his father's phone calls. He had the impression that Keller wanted nothing more to do with his father, not that I can blame him."

Nat nodded, not in the least surprised by the confirmation of what they had already been told by Roy and what he had read, not only in Keller's criminal file but also in the folder Stone had collected on Brian Keller.

"But, get this," Paul rushed on excitably, "the warden did tell me that Keller did have a visitor a couple of days before he was released."

"Who?" Nat asked, asked intrigued as they reached the elevator and he stabbed the elevator call button.

"A certain homicide lieutenant," Paul nodded his affirmation, snapping closed his notebook, as Nat turned and stared at him as the elevator doors slide open, "Mike Stone."

"Stone?" Nat breathed in disbelief as they stepped into the elevator before he glanced across at his partner in disbelief as they turned to and he hit the button for the ground floor, "Are you sure?"

Paul nodded again, "Positive.”

"Does the warden know the reason behind Stone's visit?" Nat frowned as he watched the doors slowly slide closed before he felt the familiar jolt of the elevator before it began its descent.

"No, he just remembered one of the guards telling him the Keller became quite upset and agitated during the visit and demanded to be taken back to his cell before the visit ended. So, it got me thinking about Yates's and Davids's statements that we read this morning, that were taken after their arrests, about Keller being grabbed in an attempt to force his father and Stone to hand over the diamonds they had stolen from Quintin…Look, Nat, I know the DA believes that both of them are lying in an attempt to get themselves a sweet deal and that there's no real evidence to back up what they are claiming, but…" Paul continued as the elevator abruptly stopped and the doors opened before they stepped out and he followed his partner into the lobby.

"Are you trying to say, Paul, that you think that they may be telling the truth and that Mike Stone could be up to his neck in this whole mess?" Nat stopped and looked at his partner questioningly.

"Just think about it for a minute, Nat, Stone would have known all about the diamond heist, who was involved, and the missing diamonds." Paul frowned before continuing with his theory, "We know that Stone knew about Brian Keller's imprisonment, probably after Keller opened up to him about his childhood and what happened to his mother, but what if then he discovered that Keller's father cellmate was Quintin-"

"Go on…" Nat said quietly.

Paul turned to face his partner, he rushed on. "Look, we know that Stone met up with Keller the night before he and Keller were grabbed. We also know that in the hospital, witnesses all said that Keller wanted was to see his kid and he blamed Stone from keeping him away from Steve."

"So?"

"Well think about it, Nat, that meeting wasn’t the first time Stone met up with Keller, we know he met up with Keller in the prison. What if Stone warned Keller to stay away from his son and Keller tried to bribe him to help him reconcile with his son by telling him about stealing the diamonds that he had promised Quintin he would hold for him? We both know just how hard it can be to live on a cop's wage, even if you are a lieutenant, and we know that Stone has a kid who is studying at university and we both know how expensive that can be. So, what if Stone saw this as an easy way to make things, financially, a little easier for himself and agreed with Keller to go halves in the diamonds in return for encouraging Steve to give his father a second chance?"

Nat nodded, "That does back up what Yates and Davids are saying, but it doesn't explain why Keller took half the diamonds to the hospital."

"I've been thinking about that as well," Paul continued, "We know Keller was arrested in his son's apartment."

Nat nodded.

"It’s possible that Keller could have gone there to say a final goodbye to the son he never got to say goodbye to. Maybe, just maybe, he really did feel guilty for his son's death, or Hell, who knows, maybe he just went there to hide out. He would have known that Quintin was after him and at that stage, probably Stone. So, maybe he wanted to lay low for a couple of days, where he believed no one would come looking for him, after all he believed Steve was dead and the apartment would be left empty for a few days. And you can bet that because he believed that Steve was dead, any deal he had with Stone was off. He probably already decided before everything happened not to share the diamonds with anyone, especially not Stone."

"But a nosy neighbour got him arrested."

"But not before he had managed to hide half the stones." Paul reminded Nat.

"And sometime after his arrest and escape, he discovered Steve was alive." Nat joined in as he started to accept the possibility of his partner's theory.

"So, in a moment of drunken remorse he decides to finally do what he considered was the right thing for his kid…" Paul continued.

"And wanted to give Steve the rest of the stolen diamonds…"

"Probably thinking his kid took after him and was as greedy as he was, and that the diamonds would make everything right between the two of them."

Nat nodded, as the theory made sense and fitted into everything they knew so far, as he turned and headed towards the holding cells.

"Where are we going?" Paul asked, frowning.

"We're going to interview Yates and Davids, ourselves, I want to hear just what they have to say about Stone's involvement in this whole damn mess!"

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"My lawyer tells me that you want to talk to me about doing some sort of a deal," Bobby Davids lifted his handcuffed hands and placed them behind his head before he leaned back on two legs of the chair he was sitting on. Ignoring the uniformed officer who had brought him up from the holding cell where he had spent the last twenty -four hours, he grinned at the two Internal Affairs officers who were sitting on the other side of the table as he asked confidently. "So, what are ya offering?"

"You're looking good for getting the life without parole for the aggravated kidnapping and the attempted murder of two police officers, and a hell of a lot more charges that I can't be bother to go through." Leaning forward, with his arms resting on the table, Nat consciously stopped the look of disdain that he was feeling towards the sleaze-ball sitting opposite him from showing on his face as he said softly, "But maybe, just maybe, if you decide to co-operate, I can convince the District Attorney to take ‘Life Without Parole’ off the table."

"Go on." Davids eyed the IA officer with suspicion.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about Lieutenant Stone's involvement with Brian Keller, Quintin, the stolen diamonds and this whole damn mess!"

Davids stared at him for a moment before a small smile tugged at his lips and his eyes lit up as he realized just how he could use the offer of a plea deal to his full advantage. Maybe Yates was right, they could get out of this. Lifting his hands back over his head, his chair crashed back down on all four legs as he placed his hands on the table, clasping them together as he leaned forward, "Well, well, well, so you want to know if Stone's a dirty cop, do you? Well cop, if you want your dirty cop, it's going to cost you, and I don't mean just taking the life without parole off the table. I want full immunity and I mean _full_ immunity where I walk free with nothing hanging over my head if I tell you about Stone, and everything I know about him." Paul trade glances with Nat as Davids continued, "And I'm not just talking about Brian Keller, Sam Quintin and the diamonds."

Davids laughed as he saw the naked eagerness to hear more in the eyes of the younger IA officer. Leaning back onto two legs of his chair, he placed his handcuffed hands behind his head again as he focused his attention on Paul, "You see, Quintin wasn't the only one whom Keller shared a cell with in prison, and on those loonnggg, lonely nights, Keller liked to talk about his wife, about his kid who he discovered was a cop and about his kid's partner, especially after I would ply him full of some good ol' fashion prison home-brewed hooch. And believe me, Keller told me enough about his kid's new partner to put Stone behind bars for years…"

Dropping the chair noisily back down onto all for legs, he looked back at Nat as he added cockily, "So, if I was you, Mr Internal Affairs Officer, and I wanted to know just how dirty Stone really is, what he has done and get him off the streets for ever, then I wouldn't be sitting here wasting my time asking ridiculous questions that I know that the District Attorney is just going to be asking again later. Instead I would be getting my ass out of the door and trying my God damn best to arrange my immunity cause until you do, I ain't sayin' another word!"

Nat stared silently at Davids for a minute, his face unreadable before he gathered up the open file that had sitting on the table in front of him. Nudging Paul gently in the ribs with his elbow, he rose to his feet and headed towards the door as his partner stood up and followed him. "Take him back downstairs to his cell." He ordered the officer standing guard at the door before walking out of the room with Paul following closely behind him.

Ignoring Davids's shouts of "What about my deal? Don't you want to get a dirty cop off the streets?" that echoed down the corridor, Paul looked across at his partner and asked, "Well, what do you think? Both of them are saying the same thing. Stone's a dirty cop!" When his partner didn't answer, Paul pushed a little harder, "Hell, Nat, you just heard Davids tell us that he can give us a lot more on Stone than just his link to Quintin, Keller and the diamonds…"

"I just heard both Yates and Davids desperately trying to get plea deals!" The senior IA officer growled as they reached the elevator and he slapped the elevator button before he turned and looked at his partner, "But you're right, both of them are claiming to have the goods on Stone and his role in this whole damn mess. And we both know that usually where there's smoke there's fire."

"So, what now?" Paul asked as he heard the ding that told them that the elevator had arrived on their floor a heartbeat before the elevator door slid open.

"I think it's time that we have a little talk with Stone about his relationship with Brian Keller!" Nat growled as he stepped into the elevator and hit the button to take them down to the basement and the garage.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Stepping into the empty elevator, Roy felt a little more refreshed after going home and showering before changing into some fresh clothes and grabbing a quick sandwich to eat. Turning around, he hit the button that would take him up to the ICU and turned around to face the elevator doors as the doors began to slide closed. He jumped in surprise as a familiar voice shout, "Hold that elevator!" and reached hit the button, forcing the doors to reopen the doors before they slid completely closed. He frowned in confusion as the two IA officers stepped into the elevator, "Nat, what are you doing here?" he asked before his eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion as he added, "Has something happened that I should know about?"

"Now, that's the winning sixty-four-thousand-dollar question that we are going to ask Stone." The senior officer answered, his annoyance and anger coloring the tone of his voice as he slapped the elevator button and waited for the door to slide closed before he added, "And he better have some answers or else…" as the elevator gave one sudden jerk and began to rise.

"I don't understand," Roy's frown deepened as he turned to face the two men, "What question? Just what the Hell do you think Mike has done?"

"I think Stone was in cahoots with Keller with stealing the stolen diamonds from Quintin and I think he was responsible for his partner's and his own kidnappings after things went wrong when Keller got greedy and decided to keep the diamonds for himself." Nat growled as he turned to look at Roy.

"Hey, hang on!" Roy protested angrily, "There's no way Mike was involved."

"Yeah?" Nat snarled, his anger rising as his hand darted out and slammed against the lift's emergency stop button, bringing the elevator to a complete, jarring stop between floors before he turned towards Roy and demanded, "Well, tell me then, the reason why did Stone visit Keller before his release from prison?"

"No, I don't know where you got your information from but whoever it was got it wrong." Roy tried to correct Nat's accusations, "It's in my report about the interview I carried out with Brian Keller after his arrest. He told me that Mike had met with him in some café after Keller was released to tell him to stay away from Steve -" Roy swallowed hard, his confusion growing as he looked at the two other officers as he asked hesitantly, "That wasn't the first time Mike met with Keller?"

Seeing the confusion in the Homicide lieutenant's face, Nat shook his head, "No, it wasn't. We know that he met with Keller at San Quentin three days before Keller's release."

"Are you sure?" Roy asked, already knowing the answer by the look on the IA officer's face.

"We checked with the warden who confirmed the visit and Charlie checked the signature in the visitor's sign in book for the day of the visit. The handwriting analysis prove that the signature in the book is Stone's signature, no doubts about it."

"I don't understand, why would Mike visit Keller in the prison and not say anything about it?" Roy breathed.

"And that, Roy, is the sixty-four- thousand- dollar question and Stone better have a damn good answer if he doesn't want to find himself on the wrong end of a pair of handcuffs!" Nat growled as he hit the button to restart the elevator.


	22. Chapter 22

Stepping out of the elevator as the doors slid open, Nat and Paul silently followed Roy through the doors leading into the ICU and headed towards the nurse's desk where the surgeon was standing, talking to one of the nurses before he looked down and began to jot some notes in a file.

"Dr Todds," Roy called softly as they hurried towards him. The surgeon looked up as the three SFPD officers joined him at the desk and frowned, not recognizing the two officers with the Lieutenant as Roy rushed on, tilting his head in the general direction of the two officers with him as he hurriedly made the introductions, "This is Captain Nat Schreiner and Lieutenant Paul Anderson, Internal Affairs. They would like to speak to Mike for a few minutes about his kidnapping."

The surgeon nodded as he studied the two grim faced officers, "Lieutenant Stone has just returned to the ward after undergoing surgery on his leg." Seeing the determination on the faces of the two IA officers to speak to his patient, he handed the file he had been writing in back to the nurse and sighed as he turned and began to lead the officers towards his patient's new hospital room. "I'm not sure just how coherent he is or if he will able to answer any of your questions yet, so soon after the anaesthetic, but I guess you can try." He warned them before adding, "But the questioning session is to be kept light, and five minutes max, Gentlemen. You have to remember that the lieutenant is still extremely ill and should be resting, not undergoing any type of interrogation."

"We'll go easy with him, Doc," Nat readily agreed before asking, "I am also wondering when we will be able to have a few words with Inspector Keller, get his side of what happened with the kidnapping."

"Inspector Keller is not one of my patients and is still heavily sedated," Dr Todds frowned, glancing into Steve's room at the sleeping man in the bed as they walked past before returning his attention back to the two officers as they neared Mike's new ICU room, "but I do know that Dr Hunter is currently lowering his sedation and plans to extubate him later this morning and is hoping to be able to allow him to wake up later this afternoon. But it will be up to his surgeon to decide just when he will be well enough to be questioned."

"Okay, thanks Doc," Nat smiled.

Stopping outside his patient's room, the surgeon nodded before he reminded the three men, "You have five minutes, Gentlemen, and remember, the lieutenant is still a very ill man who has just undergone surgery, so keep your questioning session light. I don't want him stressed."

"We will keep it light, Doc, I promise," Nat promised.

Eyeing the two IA officers, not quite able to keep the disbelief about their promise to go easy off his face, Todds gave them both a quick curt nod, warning them, "You better," before he turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, "Five minutes!"

Waiting until the surgeon had walked away, Nat and Paul paused in the doorway as Roy entered the room and quietly spoke to Jeannie who was standing next to the bed, holding her father's hand.

Nat watched as Jeannie glanced over her shoulder at them before she turned and said something softly to her father, gently kissing him on the cheek before she turned and walked across to the door.

Pausing as she reached the two IA officers, Jeannie forced a small smile, her eyes bright with unshed tears as she told them softly, "He's still a little sleepy from the anaesthesia."

Nat smiled as he reached across and lightly squeezed Jeannie's hand as he tried to reassure her, "We'll go easy on him, I promise, we just have a few questions to ask him about what happened."

Swallowing hard as she turned and looked back over her shoulder at Mike before she looked back at Nat, Jeannie nodded and squeezed Nat's hand back, unable to vocalize her thanks.

Patting her hand before he released it, Nat smiled back at her before he suggested quietly, "Why don't you grab yourself something to eat and a cup of coffee while we are talking to your dad, I promise we won't be long."

Jeannie nodded again before she stepped past Nat and Paul and left her father's hospital room.

After watching Jeannie leave the room, Nat turned back and walked across to the side of the bed and looked down at Mike as his eyes travelled over the dark bruises and scrapes that marred the lieutenant's face, the white bandage that encircled Mike's waist and peeked out above the light sheet that covered him, and the heavy white cast suspended in the air by a complex system or ropes and pulleys that enclosed Mike's leg. Looking back up at the now sleeping lieutenant's face, Nat placed his hand lightly on Mike's shoulder and gave it a gentle but firm shake as he ordered softly, "Mike, Mike Stone, it's me, Nat Schreiner from Internal affairs, I need you to open your eyes and answer a couple questions of questions for me." Nat waited a moment but when his request was answered with a soft snore, he shook Mike's shoulder a little hard as he ordered a little louder, "Come on, Mike, wake up!"

His firm command was rewarded when Mike groaned and slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times against the bright overhead fluorescent light as he struggled to focus on the faces that floated above him. Mike's eyes looked slightly unfocused and glazed, probably from the combination of the anaesthetic and pain medication that he was on, Nat decided, as Mike blinked again and slowly managed to focus on him.

"Nat?" Mike asked slowly.

The senior IA officer nodded, "Yeah Mike, it's me. I need to ask you a couple of questions about your partner's and your kidnapping."

"Kidnapping?" Mike frowned in momentary confusion as he looked up at Nat.

"We believe that you were grabbed when you were-"

"Fishing," Mike nodded as he finished Nat's sentence as the fogginess that was clouding his mind began to lift a little. Nat nodded but stayed silent as he waited for Mike to remember the details. "Quintin must have grabbed … Steve and then… he grabbed me…" Mike murmured haltingly as the memory slowly returned.

“Do you know why he grabbed you and Keller?” Nat asked.

"He…he thought we knew… where Steve's father was hiding the diamonds…"

"What diamonds?" Nat asked wanting to know just how much Mike knew about the diamonds and aware that the sedation still flowing through Mike's system would make it less likely for Mike to consciously lie.

"The diamonds … from the diamond heist." Mike murmured as he struggled to stay awake.

"And did you?" Nat asked quietly.

Mike shook his head, "No."

"What about your partner? Did Keller know about his father and the missing diamonds?" Paul demanded.

"Steve…didn't even know his father…was out of prison." Mike breathed as his eyes drifted shut.

"But you did, didn't you, Stone?" Paul growled, "we know that you visited Keller on at least two different occasions before the kidnapping. Now we want to know why and what you spoke about!"

Forcing his eyes open, Mike looked up at the young IA officer as he tried hard to fight against the darkness that threatened to pull him back into its embrace as he tried to explain. "I was warning…him to…stay away from Steve."

"Oh, come on Stone, do you really want us to believe that you met with Keller to warn him to stay away from your partner. The last time I checked, your partner is a grown man and quite capable to tell his father that he didn't want anything to do with him, himself. Are you sure it wasn't because you found out your partner's father was cellmates with Quintin, and you saw it as a good opportunity to find out where Quintin hid the diamonds?" Paul insisted. "Maybe take some of the diamonds, yourself? You said your partner didn't want to have anything to do with his father, maybe you decided to act as a go- between in exchange for Keller finding out where the diamonds were or to rip them off himself and then split them with you? And that's why you were met with Keller before the kidnapping, but your little plan backfired after Keller stole the diamonds and Quintin found out that you and Keller ripped him off!"

"That's enough, Anderson!" Roy growled as the spikes on the heart monitor began to race across the small green screen as Mike shook his head in denial.

"No, no, that's not … why. I ... I didn't know...about any diamonds." Mike panted, "Keller used to…abuse Steve when he…was younger. Steve … still ... still has nightmares about it."

"We know about the abuse, Mike, we read the file you were collecting on Keller, but we have to wonder why you started the file on him?" Nat asked quietly, glancing in annoyance at his partner before he returned his attention back to the man in the bed.

"Steve…Steve refused…to talk about it… but I had the …feeling that…he suspected that…the car accident that…killed his mother… was not an…accident at all." Mike told Nat breathlessly, "So I…I decided to do some…investigating…of my…own. Contacted Modesto…P.D. to get some of…the reports. And spoke to a… Lieutenant McGinley… he was the lead…investigator…into the accident…He…he was also the...officer…who responded to the last domestic violence…incident in the Keller…house which landed…Steve in hospital…and sent Keller to jail. He…he warned me… to keep…Keller away from…Steve. He suggested… that I go … meet Keller, myself… to see why …." Mike's eyes drifted closed as he began to lose the fight to stay awake and he mumbled. "Then when Keller started …calling the station…using some of…his gambling aliases…to try and contact Steve… I…I met with him …to… to warn him… to stay away…from Steve." Mike's sentence ended with a soft snore as his eyes closed and his head rolled gently to the side.

Sighing at what little information, Mike had given them, Paul ignored the angry glare Roy was giving him as he turned to his partner and asked, "Now what?"

Looking down at Mike before he looked back up at his partner, Nat answered, "I think that we should go and talk to this Lieutenant McGinley. Let's see just how much he backs up what Stone just said."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Waiting until the two men had taken a seat in front of his desk, Rod McGinley opened his drawer and removed two thick folders, placing them on his desk. "So, I understand that you want to know if Lieutenant Stone contacted me about his partner's father," he began without preamble as he slid the two files across the desk to them in a silent invitation for the two IA men to peruse them as he spoke. "Well Gentlemen, I will tell you exactly what I told him. Brian Keller was a self-absorbed, mean bastard who had a rap sheet for everything ranging from drunk and disorderly to DUI's, also several convictions of domestic assault, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, as well as the final charge of gross vehicular manslaughter for the death of his wife. He should have been charged with murder, but we just couldn't get enough evidence to convict him … And if I was his kid's partner and friend, I sure as Hell would do everything in my power to keep that bastard away from him!"

"He was that bad?" Nat asked, already suspecting that he knew the answer to that question after reading the file that Stone had collected on the man but wanting confirmation from an officer who had actually dealt with Brian Keller.

"No, he wasn't just that bad, he was worse!" McGinley growled as he nodded to the files that were still laying on the desk, untouched in front of the two IA officers. "The Keller house was one of our regular call-outs with the neighbors always calling in with complaints that they could hear the sounds of some kind of a violent confrontation, usually the sounds of objects being smashed, Keller yelling abuse, loud thumps and banging, and Mrs Keller's screams of terror, coming from the house. The officers would respond and would usually be met at the door by Keller who insisted that the neighbors were exaggerating, and he had just had a small domestic tiff with the missus." McGinley shook his head in disgust, "So rather than check and have to deal with the paperwork of a domestic assault later, the responding officers usually just took Keller's word and would leave."

Nat nodded, aware until a few short years ago, officers tended to turn a blind eye to domestic abuse, with many believing what happened between a wife and husband behind closed doors, should remain behind closed doors.

"So, one day about fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I was on patrol, we got our usual call to the Keller's house, the neighbors reported the sounds of an extremely violent fight, with lots of screaming, smashing of furniture, the usual thing but this time they said it sounded more violent than normal and asked that we get over there fast." Swallowing hard, the lieutenant stare at a spot on the wall behind Nat's shoulder as his eyes glazed over a little as he relived responding to the Keller house that day, "Hell, I still remember that call like it happened yesterday. It was bad…one of the worse call-outs that I have ever attended…"

Glancing at his partner before returning his attention back to the Modesto police lieutenant, and not sure if he really wanted to know all the details on the assault of a child by a parent, especially when that child was now a work colleague, Paul forced himself to ask, "What happened?"

"When we arrived, Keller was drunk and belligerent," McGinley began softly, his hands curling up into tight fists as he recalled the events that happened that day. "He met us at the front door and did his usual insistence that there wasn't anything wrong inside the house, that he had just had a little disagreement with the missus and how it was no one else's business, especially not ours. I could hear a woman sobbing hysterically inside the house. So, I forced my way past Keller as he tried to close the door, into the house. And that's when I saw all the damage, the broken furniture and the cracked and broken wall that looked like a body had been thrown up hard against it… And that's when I saw Jenny… I mean, Mrs Keller sitting on the floor next to the wall. She had obviously been severely beaten and she was cradling what I first believed was the body of her son in her arms. The kid had been beaten so bad…"

Reaching for the pen as he struggled to contain his revulsion, horror and anger that his memories of that day still brought to the surface, even after sixteen years, McGinley began to click the end of the pen as he continued, "It was only after I felt for a pulse and found one that I realized that Steve was even alive. I'll admit that it took all my strength and training not to get up and beat Keller to a pulp right then and there, especially when Keller claimed that the fight and the assaults he had inflicted on his wife and son were their fault not his. He claimed that Jenny should have kept her damn mouth shut about he spent his money and the brat should not have tried to interfere when he had attempted to bring her back into line."

McKinley shook his head as he threw the pen down on the table and reached for one of the untouched files sitting in front of the two SFPD internal affairs officers. Opening it up, he took out several photos of a severely beaten woman and child, throwing them down one by one on the desk for the officers to see as he added sarcastically, "Yeah, like beating your wife into submission and your twelve-year-old son so badly that he is left with severe bruising to his back, face and arms, four broken ribs and a severe concussion after you picked him up and threw him across the room and into the wall just for trying to protect his mother when you were beating her. And you have the hide to claim it's all his fault and not yours! And it's not the first time your kid has been admitted to hospital for similar questionable injuries!"

"I don't understand, if he was so violent towards his wife and his son, why didn't she just leave?" Paul frowned.

"From what Jenny told me that first night after the assault, when Steve was in the hospital, that she had tried to leave multiple times, but she always returned after he threatened that if she didn't, he would hunt them down and kill both of them. She was terrified of him and had no doubts that he would carry out his threats." McGinley shook his head, "It took me three days to get her to press charges against Keller and two more days to convince her to leave for him for good." Leaning back in his chair, McGinley looked across the desk at Nat as he said softly, "I was also one of the responding officers who attended the accident in which Jenny Keller was killed, a few years later. I was shocked to find her in the car with Keller, especially as Keller was drunk. I don't know how Keller convinced her to meet him in a restaurant but our investigations uncovered a witness, a waiter at the restaurant, who told us Jenny looked terrified during the dinner and had not wanted to leave with Keller, she had wanted to leave alone. The waiter had admitted he had seen Keller roughly grab her arm as they were leaving the table, and he had overheard Keller threaten Jenny with hurting the brat if she didn't leave with him, but the evidence was never heard in court."

"Why not?" Nat frowned.

"Because the waiter had recanted his statement when his boss found out that he spoken to us and had threatened him with dismissal for eavesdropping on customers' conversations. If you want my opinion, that accident wasn't an accident at all, Brian Keller finally made good on his threat to kill his wife if she ever left him. The damage was all on the passenger side where Jenny Keller was sitting. Keller got out with barely a scratch."

"So, do you think that Keller murdered her?" Paul asked.

"I do, and I can tell you now, so does his son. At Keller's trial, I heard Steve tell his father, just before Keller was escorted down to the holding cell, that he knew that what happened was not an accident and that he would never forgive him for murdering his mother nor did he ever want to see him again." McGinley told Paul before returning his attention back to Nat, "So, you want to know what I told Stone when he asked me about his partner's father. I told him everything that I just told you. And I told him to talk to Keller for just half an hour because half an hour is all the time Stone would need to see just what a self-absorbed, uncaring bastard he really was. I also suggested that if Stone cared about Steve as much as he claimed he did, that he would not let his father get within one hundred miles of him."

"Thank you, Lieutenant." Nat smiled as he rose from his chair.

McKinley nodded as he watched Paul stand up and follow his partner towards the door.

Stopping as he reached the door, Nat turned back towards the lieutenant and frowned, "Just one more thing, Stone said that Keller started to ring the station after his release, using some of his gambling aliases, trying to reach his son. Any idea why?"

Looking up from gathering the photos that he had scattered across his desk to return them to the folder, McKinley frowned, "If Keller was trying to reach Steve, it would have been because he wanted and expected something like money or a place to stay and not because he wanted to apologize to the kid or try and make up for the hell he had put him through his whole life."

Nat stared at the lieutenant for a few moments as he digested what McKinley had just told him before he gave a single curt nod and thanked the lieutenant. Turning, he walked out of the office with Paul following closely behind.

Waiting until they reached their car, Paul looked across at his partner and frowned, "Well McGinley backed up what Stone told us, so what now?"

Nat paused with his hand resting on the door handle as he looked across the roof of the car at his partner, "McGinley may have explained why Stone went to meet with Keller in the prison, but he doesn't know why Stone met with Keller afterwards. A meeting might I add that Stone kept secret. All we know about those meetings and conversations is what Stone told us, that he met with Keller to warn him to stay away from his son, but we just have Stone's word that that's all they spoke about.

We also know that Stone collected quite an extensive file on Keller himself, a file that he kept in a locked drawer, and again, just like the two meetings with Keller, Stone kept the file a secret and I want to know the real reason why! I want to know if Stone was really trying to protect his partner as he claims, or if Yates and Davids may be actually telling the truth and that Stone was trying to hold something, maybe even a reconciliation with his kid, over Keller's head." Opening the car door and sliding in behind the steering wheel, Nat waited until his partner also climbed into the car beside him and closed the door before he started the engine, easing the large car out of its parking space before driving towards the parking lot entrance as he continued, "So, when we get back to San Francisco, I want you to find out what café it was where Stone and Keller met. Talk to the staff and the owner, see if any of them remember the two of them meeting, and if they did, find out if anyone overheard their conversation.

Also, I want everything you can get me on Brian Keller, his background, rap sheet, the car accident that killed his wife and the subsequent trial where Keller was convicted of vehicle manslaughter and any attempts that he may have tried to make to contact his son. Stone said that Keller used some of his gambling aliases to try and contact Steve, find out what they were and check them out as well. I want to know everything about him when I get back so we can compare it with the file that Stone had collected on him and see if there's something in his past and in file that Stone collected on him that we missed."

Paul nodded his acknowledgement of his partner's orders. He frowned as he waited until Nat pulled out of the parking lot and into the traffic lane heading west, before he asked, "If I'm doing all that, what are you going to do?"

After looking in his rear vision mirror before pulling into the next lane of traffic to overtake a slower car, Nat glanced at the traffic ahead before he looked back at his partner, "Didn't the surgeon say that they were lowering Keller's sedation to allow him to wake up this afternoon?"

Paul's frown deepened as he answered slowly, "Yeah, so?"

"Well, I intend to be there when he does!" Nat answered, his hands tightening around the steering wheel as he stepped on the accelerator and overtook another slow moving car.


	23. Chapter 23

Pulling up outside the café where Yates had told him Stone and Keller had been seen together, Paul turned off the engine and stared at the large glass windows that lined the front of the building with a critical eye, just as Nat had taught him. If Stone had wanted to meet Keller in secret to discuss ripping Quintin off, he couldn't have chosen a worse place. From where he was sitting, he could see the customers in the café who were sitting at the tables and at the counter and he was sure that at night, sitting outside in a dark car, looking into the well-lit diner, the customers would be even easier to see and identify.

Climbing out of the car, he walked across and pushed open the café door, ignoring the small bell that jangled as he looked around at the tables that were lined up against the windows and the stools that sat in front of an antique looking counter and the kitchen window just behind it, taking in the atmosphere of the small diner. It had the feel of a small mom and pop business, the kind of place that had its regulars who kept coming back year after year, either for the food, or the welcoming atmosphere or both. It was the type of place where the staff would know most of their customers by their first name and notice any strangers.

Walking across to the counter, he ordered a coffee from the middle- aged waitress as he sat down, shaking his head as she asked him if he would like a slice of pie, fresh baked that morning, to go with his order. She reached beneath the counter and grabbed a cup and saucer, placing them in front of him before she turned and grabbed the coffee pot sitting next to the register on the small counter behind her. Turning back, she smiled as she poured his coffee, "Haven't seen you around here before, are you new to the area or just passing through?"

"Actually, I'm a cop," Paul told her, reaching into his pock and pulling out his ID, showing her his badge as he introduced himself, "Lieutenant Paul Anderson, Internal Affairs, San Francisco Police. I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me."

"Internal Affairs," the waitress frowned in confusion. "Aren't you the guys who investigate other cops?"

Paul nodded as he closed his ID wallet before he pulled out two small photos from his other pocket, handing her a photo of Mike as he asked, "I was wondering if you know this man?"

"Yeah, I do," the waitress told Paul, glancing at the photo before she handed it back to him, "That's Lieutenant Mike Stone. He's a nice guy and is one of our most loyal customers even since he was walking the beat. He's even brings his young partner with him when he comes in for our breakfast special- two eggs - sunny side up, bacon, tomato, toast and a cup of coffee for the just three dollars." Her frown deepened as she asked, "Is he in some sort of trouble?"

Paul ignored her question as he slowly slid a photo of Brian Keller across the counter towards her. "What about this guy?"

"Yeah, I remember this guy," she nodded as a customer further down the counter called out, asking for a refill before excusing herself with, "Listen, I'll be back in a sec, George tends to get a little impatient if he doesn't get his second cup of coffee straight away."

Nodding, Paul picked up the two photos and tucked them both back into his coat pocket as the waitress moved away to refill the customer's cup before returning to where he was sitting.

"Now, where were we?" she asked.

"The second man I showed you." Paul answered softly.

"Ahh, that's right," she nodded. "Yeah, he was the guy who was in here about three or four nights ago. I remember because I had never seen him before, and we don't tend to get many strangers in here."

"Was he alone?" Paul asked, picking up his coffee and taking a small sip.

"No, that was what caught my attention. Mike was in here that night, sitting alone over there." She told Paul, frowning as she nodded across at one of the tables that lined the wall. "He normally comes in with his partner or when he's alone, he usually sits up here at the counter and we have a bit of a chat, you know, just about general things like how my family is going, the latest sports results, stuff like that but this night he didn't. He just sat down at the table and ordered a coffee. He looked like he had a lot on his mind. At first, I just thought that he had had a hard day and wanted some time alone. But then the other man came in a few minutes later and joined him at the table."

"Did you happen to overhear just what the lieutenant and this man were talking about?" Paul asked.

"Who didn't?" the waitress answered, "The other man got quite agitated and caused quite a commotion during their conversation, started yelling at Mike that he had no right to try and tell him to stay away from his kid! That the brat was his kid, not Mike's and if he wanted to contact him, he would, and there was nothing that Mike could do about it! So, I moved a little closer to them, you know just in case things got out of control and Mike needed some help subduing him. I might not look that strong but I promise you that I can pack quite a whack with ol' Henry here." She told him, reaching beneath the counter and lifting out an old cast iron frying pan she had hidden there as she continued, "Well, let me tell you, it's the first time I have ever heard the lieutenant raise his voice, not enough for anyone sitting at the other tables would be able to hear but enough I could tell that he was serious. I heard him tell the guy something about the guy being on parole and he warned him that if he even attempted to contact Steve again, would make sure that he found himself back in prison so fast that it would make his head spin."

"Lieutenant Stone said 'Steve', are you sure?" Paul frowned.

The waitress nodded as she slid ol' Henry back into his hiding spot, "Yeah, he said Steve. I remember because I thought it was kind of funny because that's what his partner's name is - Steve…Steve Keller. You don't think that maybe they were talking about him, do you?"

Paul shrugged non-committedly, "I don't know, but what happened then?"

"Not much, I guess Mike must have got his point across 'cause the guy got up in a huff and stormed out of here. Almost smashed the glass in the front door when he slammed shut it as he was leaving."

"What did the lieutenant do?"

"Mike left a minute or so later. Didn't even finish his coffee or say goodbye like he usually does. He just left the money for the coffee and a big tip on the table. He looked really, really worried, I asked him if everything was okay, but I don't think he even heard me." Looking at Paul she added, "I hope he's not in trouble or anything about what happened. It was the other guy who was causing a scene, not him."

"No, I don't think the lieutenant is in any trouble." Paul reassured her as he rose to his feet and pulled out his wallet. Removing two ten-dollar bills from it, he handed them across to the waitress as he smiled, "Thank you, you have been a big help."

"Hey, this is too much," the waitress called after him as he turned and headed towards the door.

"Keep the change, you deserve it." Paul called out over his shoulder, giving her a quick wave of his hand as he pulled open the door and headed back outside to his car.

Opening his car door, he slid behind the slid behind the steering wheel, closing the car door. Placing the key in the ignition switch, he started the car, before he turned to stare at the small diner for a moment, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel. The waitress had just collaborated most of what Keller had said in the statement that he had given to Devitt after his arrest, and just like Lieutenant McKinley, she also had just backed up what Stone had told them only hours ago in the hospital.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Stepping out of Steve's room to grab himself another cup of coffee, Roy frowned as he saw Nat Schreiner talking to Steve's surgeon at the nurse's station. After seeing the determined look on Nat's face and the harassed look on the surgeon's face as they argued softly, Roy had the sinking feeling that Nat had decided to try and take advantage of questioning Steve as he emerged from the sedation, just like he and his partner had done just a few short hours ago with Mike. Roy's heart sunk as he saw the surgeon sigh and nod as he reluctantly rose from his seat and moved around the counter before leading Nat down the corridor towards him and Steve's room.

"I doubt that he is going to be answer many of your questions," the surgeon told Nat as they approached Roy and the door to Steve's room, "You have to remember that he was only removed from the ventilator a couple of hours ago, so combine that with the severe concussion, severe blood loss and the level of sedation and pain killers that are running through his system, I doubt that he is going to be able to understand or even answer any of your questions yet, or that he is going to be awake for more than a minute or two."

"That's okay, Doc," Nat smiled, placing his hand on the surgeon's shoulder as they reached Steve's hospital room door, "I only need a minute or two to ask him a couple of questions. I promise that I will keep it light."

"Yeah, just like the grilling that your partner gave Mike," Roy growled softly under his breath as they reached him.

"You better," the surgeon warned sternly, stopping at the door as he turned to give Nat a no-nonsense look as he added firmly, "because if you place him under any stress at all, I will end the interview. And I will make sure that you will not be allowed anywhere near him to question him again until after he leaves the ICU, understood?"

"Understood," Nat readily agreed.

"And under no circumstance, is Inspector Keller to be told of his father's death. That will have to wait until he is a lot stronger, he is no condition to be able to handle or even process that news yet."

"Got it Doc, no mention of his father's death." Nat promised.

The doctor nodded, satisfied that the conditions he was placing on the IA officer's brief question and answer session with his critically ill patient would be followed, before he turned and led the two SFPD officers into the room. Crossing to the side of the bed, he glanced up at the heart monitor, studying the small green blip that danced across the screen before he turned and nodded silently at Nat as Roy stopped at the end of the bed to watch, grateful that Sandra had decided to go home and catch up on some well needed sleep and was not in the room.

Staring down, Nat silently studied the tube that emerged from the side of the young inspector's chest, Steve's bruised and battered face and the heavy cast that encased Steve's arm. It was only too evident that the young man had severely beaten and abused and the fact that the person who was most likely responsible for what had happened to him was his own father and his own father's greed caused Nat's blood to boil. Reaching down he lightly grabbed Steve's shoulder and gently shook it, "Steve, Steve, it's Nat Schreiner. I need you to open your eyes, Steve." When he received no response to his gentle attempt to wake Steve from his drug induced sleep, Nat shook his shoulder a little harder as he ordered a little louder, "Steve, I need you to wake up."

His gentle request was rewarded when Steve slowly opened his eyes and took a slightly bigger breath, moaning softly as a white-hot pain flare through his chest.

Nat gave Steve's shoulder a light reassuring squeeze as Steve blinked several times trying to focus on the figure standing next to the bed. "Welcome back, Keller," Nat smiled down at him, "I was beginning to think that you were going to do what your partner is currently doing and sleep the day away."

"Mike?" Steve breathed softly, his voiced muffled by the oxygen mask, as he blinked tiredly up at the IA officer.

"Yeah Mike, Steve, he's sleeping in the room the room next door." Squeezing Steve's shoulder again, Nat smiled down at the critically ill man.

Steve shook his head slowly, as a tear trickled down his face and the beeps on the heart monitor began to beep a little faster, "No…Mike's dead…" Steve whispered weakly, before he repeated the same words that had broken Roy's heart when he had whispered them to Roy in the cabin just over twenty -four hours before, "Mike’s...Mike's dead...and it's...my…my… fault… "

Glancing at Roy, silencing him with a look as Roy opened his mouth to try and reassure Steve that Mike was alive and would be okay, Nat looked down at Steve, hating himself for not reassuring the young man himself but desperate to get to the truth of what had happened, he asked gently, "Why's it your fault, Steve?"

"Shouldn't have…fallen asleep… on …the …stakeout."

"The Newman stake-out?" Roy frowned.

Steve nodded weakly as he struggled to stay awake.

"Why?" Nat asked.

"Had a…bad… dream." Steve breathed as his eyes drifted closed.

"About your father?" Nat pushed softly as he shook Steve's shoulder, trying to stop the young man from falling asleep before he answered any more questions.

"I…didn't want…Mike…to know …" Steve whispered as he forced his eyes open. The broken, pleading look in Steve's eyes as he looked up at Nat shattered Roy's heart again. "I …didn't …want…anyone…to… know…" Steve murmured as his eyes drifted closed of their own accord and he fell silent.

"But because of a bad dream, Mike discovered your secret," Roy finished for him softly, looking up at Nat.

"And Mike decided to do his own investigation." Nat sighed, shaking his head, his own heart aching for the young man and the secret he had tried so desperately to hide from everyone, even his closest friends.

"I'm afraid that's all you are going to get for now, gentlemen," Dr Todd ordered firmly before he looked down at his sleeping patient and shook his head, "I'm surprised that you got as much from him as you did but he needs to rest."

"Thanks Doc, he will. I think he just answered all the questions I needed to ask." Nat reassured the surgeon, stepping away from the side of the bed as the doctor began to examine Steve.

Turning to look at Roy, Nat asked softly, "He said he had the dream after falling asleep on the Newman stake-out, when was that?"

Roy frowned, looking down at the floor as he tried to remember just how long it had been since Mike and Steve had spent two nights staked out in front of their murder suspect's home. Looking back up at Nat, he answered "About four weeks ago."

Nat nodded, "So, it was about the same time that Mike began to investigate Keller."

"Yeah," Roy breathed as he turned and looked at Steve. Although the young inspector might not know it yet, he could have possibly just helped to clear his partner's name.

"Excuse me Officers, I'm sorry for interrupting." Both men turned to find a nurse standing behind them as the nurse continued, "But there's a phone call for Captain Schreiner at the nurse's station, a Lieutenant Anderson."

"Thank you," Nat smiled at the nurse before he turned back to Roy and added, "I'll be right back.”

Roy nodded and turned back towards the bed, watching the doctor as he finished his examination of Steve as Nat turned and followed the nurse out of the room.

Reaching the nurse's station, Nat picked up the phone and waited until the nurse walked away before he asked, "What have you got for me, Paul?"

 _"Pay dirt, Nat!"_ Nat could hear the excitement in his partner's voice as Paul rushed on, _"I found the café where Stone met Keller."_

"And?" Nat asked.

_"The waitress remembers them. She said that Stone is a regular customer, he has been going there for years and has even started taking his partner there for breakfast. Anyway, she confirmed everything about the meeting with Keller that Stone told us about. Said that Stone met Keller in the café' about three or four nights ago. They sat at a window table and got into, from what she described, was quite a heated discussion during which Keller got quite agitated. So agitated, that she pulled, Ol' Henry out from under the counter in case Stone needed some assistance in subduing him if he became violent."_

"Ol' Henry?" Nat asked confused.

He heard his partner chuckle, _"Her trusty old iron cast frying pan."_

Nat shook his head in amusement before he grew serious again and asked, "Did she and Ol' Henry happened to overhear what they were arguing about?"

_"Better than that, she walked across and overheard most of the argument. And just like Stone told us, they were arguing about Stone telling Keller to stay away from Steve. She said she heard Stone warn Keller that he was on parole and that if he ever attempted to contact Steve again, he would make sure that Keller would find himself back in prison so fast that it would make his head spin."_

"There was no mention of Quintin or the diamonds?" Nat asked softly.

 _"No, the whole argument seemed to revolve around Steve and Stone warning his father to stay away. The waitress said that Keller left the diner a few minutes later, and he was not too happy by Stone's demands."_ Paul told him before adding, _"And Nat, from my own observations, if Stone wanted to meet Keller without being seen by anyone, he picked the wrong place to do so. You can look straight into the café from the street and see everyone inside, plus Stone was sitting at a window table waiting for Keller when Keller arrived."_

Nat smiled as he turned and looked at Mike's room, "Sounds like Mike knew enough about Keller not to be caught meeting him somewhere where there were no witnesses. And it looks like the waitress and McGinley have just backed up everything that Stone has told us." Turning back to the counter, he added, "Listen, I'm about to head back-"

 _"No wait, Nat, there's more."_ Paul interrupted, excitedly. _"After I interviewed the waitress, I got to thinking about something Davids said to us…about being Keller's cellmate and the long nights when he had plied Keller with hooch and listened to his stories about his kid and Stone, and all the alleged crimes that Stone is supposedly involved in…"_

"And?" Nat frowned.

_"Well I phoned the warden and asked him when and just how long that Davids and Keller had shared a cell and get this, it turns out that they never have. Davids shared a cell with Yates, next to Quintin's cell."_

"So Davids and Yates are lying?"

_"Yeah, in fact, the warden said that there was no love lost between Davids and Keller for the other and the tensions increased after Keller managed to wriggle his way into being Quintin's cell mate. Davids didn't trust Keller at all, in fact, none of the crims, except it seems Quintin, trusted Keller. He was at the bottom of the food chain."_

"So, there was no way that Keller would have ever told Davids about Stone being a dirty cop." Nat mused into the phone softly.

 _"No way!"_ Paul agreed before he asked, _"Was Steve able to shed any light on what happened when you questioned him?"_

"Not much," Nat answered, "He's still heavily sedated and the questioning session was extremely light but what he was able to tell me that Stone did not even know anything about his father nor did Stone even know that that his father was alive until about four weeks ago after he fell asleep on a stakeout and suffered a nightmare. That confirms the time-line we have with Stone's meeting with McKinley-"

_"And that fits in with Stone's visit to the prison to meet with Keller after McKinley told him to go see Keller for himself. It looks like Stone was telling the truth about why he was collecting a file on Keller and why he met with him. He really was just trying to protect his partner, unfortunately someone saw the last meeting between him and Keller and probably got the wrong idea."_

"Yeah, but that's the case the DA and Homicide guys have to finish investigating." Nat agreed before he leaned back on the counter and smiled with relief. This was the reason why he did this job, not just to weed out the dirty cops but to clear the names of the good ones, especially when that good cop was a friend! "Well Paul, my boy, you did a good job! I think you just collected enough evidence for us to clear an innocent cop!" he told his partner.

He could see Paul's smiling proudly in his mind as he heard the younger officer reply, _"I guess I am learning from the best."_

"That you are, my friend," Nat chuckled, "But always remember my number one rule of any IA investigation -"

 _"Always begin the investigation by assuming the officer, even if that officer is a close friend, is guilty of what they have been accused of and then go out and find the evidence that we need to prove that he is innocent."_ Paul recited the rule that Nat had made up and followed with each investigation.

It was a rule that Nat had found always made the clearing an officer of any allegations of wrongdoing so much sweeter as he added, "And today we found the evidence that proved a good cop's innocence. Listen, I want you to go back to the café and get the waitress's statement and then tell the DA not to make any plea deals with Yates or Davids. Tell him that both of them are lying through their teeth."

_"Okay Nat, then do you want me to sign off the case and start the report to give to the chief."_

"No, I write the report when I get back." Turning to look at Steve’s room, Nat added, "There's something I want to check with Lieutenant Devitt's regarding his statement about the Keller shooting, here at the hospital first, before I officially sign off on it."

 _"Anything I should know about?"_ Paul asked, his confusion evident in his voice.

"No, I don't think so, I just want to check on a discrepancy between what he told us and what the first responding officer said in his statement. I doubt it's anything, but I just want to check." Nat told him before hanging up the phone and turning to stare at Roy as the Homicide lieutenant emerged from Keller's room with the doctor before heading across to the visitor's room, probably to get himself another cup of coffee.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Placing his mug of coffee down on the table, Roy reached for a mug before pouring a second mug of coffee as the door to the waiting room opened and Nat entered the room. "Do you still have cream and sugar?" Roy asked over his shoulder.

"No, Mary put me on some new fan-dangle diet she read about in some woman's magazine, claims cream and sugar are bad for my health." Nat answered as he crossed the room to join Roy at the table.

"Just don't let her get with Sandra anytime soon. Sandra's decided that we eat too much red meat, says we need to eat more salads and steamed fish." Roy sighed as he turned and handed Nat the mug of black, sugarless coffee.

"Ouch," Nat sympathized, nodding his thanks before leaning back against the table and taking a sip.

"Yeah," Roy agreed, staring at the door as he also settled against the table. Glancing at the IA officer, he added, "Problem is she cooks steamed fish the same way she cooks everything else."

"Double ouch!" Nat grimaced as he lowered his mug and cradled it in his hands.

Roy nodded before he took a sip of his coffee.

"Mike's just been cleared of the accusations made against him by Yates and Davids. We spoke to McKinley and Paul just found a witness at the café where Keller and Mike met. Both McKinley and the witness have confirmed everything Mike told us. Both times he met with Keller, he met with him to warn him to stay away from Steve." Nat told him softly, taking a second sip of his coffee.

Glancing sideways at the IA officer, Roy asked, "Does that mean the case is closed?"

"Not quite," Nat answered as he turned his head to look at Roy, "There's still a discrepancy in the case that I need to check."

Roy felt his mouth go dry and he swallowed hard as he tried hard to keep a poker face as he realized what the discrepancy was most likely to be. "What discrepancy?"

"It has to do with Keller's shooting."

"What about it? I told you everything that led up to the shooting. It's all in my report. He left me no choice, Nat, he was holding a nurse hostage and he tried to shoot Mike." Roy said defensively.

"No, the shooting's fine, Roy, I have already ruled it justifiable. I am more interested with the letter the officer found in Keller's pocket with the packet of diamonds." Nat began slowly, watching Roy closely as he added, "The letter that he said in his statement that was address to Steve and that he gave to you."

"Ohh, that letter," Roy murmured, aware that there was no use trying to deny it.

Nat nodded, "Yeah, that letter."

"I kept it, Nat." Roy admitted quietly, looking down at his coffee mug, aware that his admission that he had willingly withheld evidence was going to get him brought up on disciplinary charges or worse. But he also knew that if he had to do it all over again, he would to protect Steve.

"Why did you do it, Roy?"

Looking back up at the IA officer, Roy told him honestly, "I didn't want anyone reading what Keller said in it, especially Steve. It's the last thing he needs to read or know that anyone else has."

"That bad?" Nat frowned before he took another sip of coffee.

"Worse, Nat, much, much worse." Roy answered with a shuddering breath as he remembered the final words that Brian had left for his son.

Nat sighed, able to imagine just what cruel things that Keller had said in the letter to inflict as much pain onto his son as he could. From everything he had read and heard about Brian Keller, he knew the man would lash out at his small family whenever he was backed into a corner or didn't get his own way. It left Nat with no doubts, after all he had learned, that Keller had murdered his wife and he had no doubts that he would want his son to live with the guilt and burden of all he had done. Hell, the only reason Keller probably even went to the hospital was to make a drunken claim over his son and to make sure Mike knew that Steve was his possession. He doubted Paul's theory that maybe he was going to give some of the diamonds to Steve in an attempt to make things right between them. Nat sighed again as he turned to face the Homicide lieutenant and one of his closest friends as he warned Roy, "You know that I could and should bring you up on charges for failing to disclose evidence because you didn't hand over the letter, don't you?"

Roy nodded, ready to accept whatever punishment that was coming his way, he had done the wrong thing for all the right reasons, "Yeah, I know."

"Have you destroyed the letter yet?" Nat asked.

"No, not yet," Roy answered, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, feeling so very tired and old.

"Then burn it." Nat advised him quietly.

Looking at his friend in confusion, not sure if he had heard the IA officer correctly, Roy spluttered, "What?"

"You said you don't want anyone else, especially Steve, to read Keller's letter, so I am assuming that the letter was more of Keller's abuse that he wanted to inflict upon his son."

Roy nodded.

"Steve's been through enough because of that man, and he still has to deal the fallout of everything his father did, not only physically but emotionally and psychologically as well. Plus, he still has to deal with the upcoming trial of Yates and Davids for their roles in his and Mike's kidnapping." Shaking his head, the IA officer looked at Roy as he continued, "Hell Roy, I just heard the guilt and self-blame the kid is laying on himself for his father's actions in that hospital room a couple of minutes ago.

I might not totally agree with you withholding evidence from me during an investigation and I really should bring you up on, at the very least, disciplinary charges, if not criminal charges, but I won't. I can understand why you did it, and why you feel like you needed to protect Steve from his father's last words. So, my advice to you is to burn that letter, so there is no chance that anyone else will ever read it."

"But what about the report? I mean you have the officer's statement that he gave me the letter." Roy asked, shocked.

"His statement will stay in the file," Nat shrugged as he added, "but we both know that sometimes evidence, like let's just say...umm... a letter, gets misplaced or lost, especially after the case is closed and put in storage. Plus, because Mike has been cleared of any charges, there's no reason why anyone will need to read the file. The chief is only interested in my written report that that says there was no misconduct on Mike's behalf and that he is innocent of all accusations."

Staring at Nat, still shocked at the IA's officer's decision to turn a blind eye to what he had done, Roy murmured, "Thank you."

"There's no need to thank me, I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for Steve. He's been through enough with what his no-good father has put not only him, but also Mike, through. He doesn't need me adding to his guilt by charging you because you were doing something to try and protect him from any more pain." Nat told him before he turned and placed his mug back on the table behind them. Turning back to face Roy, Nat warned him firmly, "But don't think for a moment that I will turn a blind eye again. If you ever, and I do mean _ever,_ decide that you can keep evidence again without disclosing it, I _will_ throw the book at you, Roy. I don't care if we are friends or not. Is that understood?"

"Understood." Roy agreed as Nat nodded and headed towards the door.

Pausing as he opened the door, Nat turned and looked back at Roy, "Oh, and Roy, you can collect your gun when you get back to Bryant Street, you are officially back on full duty. I'll also let the doctors know on my way out that IA investigation is over and that it's okay with me if Stone and Keller now share a room."

"Thanks." Roy said quietly as Nat disappeared out of the room. Swallowing hard, Roy stared at the empty doorway, unable to quite believe what had just happened.


	24. Chapter 24

Releasing a shuddering breath of relief, Roy turned and placed his own only half-drunk mug off coffee back on the table behind him before he followed Nat from the room. Passing Steve's dimly lit room, he glanced inside, pausing as he saw Jeannie standing silently next to the bed, staring down at Steve. Standing quietly at the door, he watched her for a moment before he entered the room. Crossing to the bed, he placed his arm around her shoulder, and gave her a light fatherly hug. "I thought you might have gone home when Sandra left this evening. It's been a long forty-eight hours, and I bet that you haven't got much sleep."

"I thought I would sit with Mike for a while," Jeannie answered distractedly as she continued to stare at her father's partner. "But he's asleep and the nurse said that he should sleep until tomorrow morning."

"How is Mike?" Roy asked softly, "I was going to try and sit with him for a while, but I got a little tied up with Nat."

"He's running a fever, but the nurse told me that that's to be expected with the type of injuries he suffered, and they have changed his antibiotics. They are keeping a close eye on him." Jeannie answered as she reached down and carefully adjusted the sheet that covered Steve. "But the doctor told me that he is improving, and the fever is just a minor setback, nothing that he is too concerned about."

"Mike's strong, Jeannie, he's going to recover from this. He's going to be up and back on his feet before you even know it," Roy reassured her gently, giving her shoulders a light squeeze. "Just you wait and see."

Jeannie nodded, "I know," she whispered as she stared down at Steve for another minute before she looked back up at Roy, "I still don't understand Roy, why Steve never told us about his father. I know that Sandra told me that you said that he had his reasons and that's it's no one else's business but…" She sighed and slowly shook her head as she softly admitted, "I guess I have been standing here, trying to work out what those reasons were... Wondering why Steve would ever let everyone believe that his father was dead…Why he didn't trust us enough…"

Roy sighed as he realized that as much as he wanted to, he was not going to be able to hide Steve's past from Jeannie. She was going to find out eventually, whether Steve wanted her to or not and probably sooner rather than later, especially if he and Mike were going to share a room. Looking down at Steve, he sighed again hating the fact that he had to do what he was about to do. "Look Jeannie, I think we better talk but not here. Let's go grab a cup of coffee, and not any of this stuff that the hospital tries to pass off as coffee. I just happen to know that there's an all-night diner just down the street that makes an awesome cup of coffee and the best apple pie that you will ever eat, so let's go there and I will answer all your questions." He told her quietly as he turned and lightly taking her by the elbow, led her towards the door, not wanting to risk Steve waking and overhearing the conversation he was about to have with Jeannie, not only about Steve's past but also what happened during the last two days.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Jeannie stared at Roy as he finished telling her everything what they had discovered about Steve's father, and how Mike had found out about Steve's hidden past. She found herself momentarily speechless, uncertain of just what to say or how to react as she tried to process everything she had just been told as Roy continued, "So, you see, Jeannie, that's why Steve never spoke about his father or his past. I guess he didn't want anyone to know."

Jeannie could only nod, before she found her voice to whisper, "But Mike found out when he had a nightmare."

"Yeah, and decided to do some investigating on his own," Roy nodded as he wrapped his hands around the cup of coffee, grateful for its warmth. "He probably thought that the more that he knew about Steve's father, the better he could protect Steve. And after Keller was paroled from prison and started trying to contact Steve..."

"Mike met with him to warn him to stay away," Jeannie whispered as she realized where Roy was leading her.

"Only someone saw them together and got the wrong idea after Keller disappeared with the diamonds, and that's the reason we believe why both Steve and Mike were grabbed." Roy told her softly, falling silent as the waitress appeared and topped up their coffees. He waited until she moved away before he spoke again. "They thought by grabbing the two of them, they could use killing Steve as a threat over Mike's head and they could force him into telling them where the diamonds were hidden."

"Only Mike didn't know." Jeannie murmured before she added, "And neither did Steve. He probably didn't even know until then that his father was out of prison and involved."

"We don't think he did." Roy nodded as Jeannie fell silent again. "I think he only discovered that his father had been released on parole after he and Mike were grabbed but what I do know is that he and Mike tried hard to protect each other. And I also know that his father didn't care what happened to Steve because he had already had the diamonds, even though he had been warned by Quintin that if he double-crossed him that Steve would pay the price. Then, even after he had heard about Steve's accident, and he knew that he was probably responsible for his own son's death, he came to the station and tried to collect on Steve's life insurance and death benefits.

We only discovered the truth behind Steve's ‘accident’ and Mike's 'drowning' after Charlie was able to cast doubt on the body being Steve's and we arrested Keller with half the stolen diamonds for breaking and entering, after he broke into Steve's apartment. It was only then that Brian Keller decided to co-operate and tell us about what was really behind Mike's and Steve's disappearances. And he did so, not because he thought that he could save Steve's or Mike's lives, but because he wanted to get the ‘Life with no possibility of parole’ off the table."

Jeannie could not stop the small gasp of horror that slipped from her lips as she found herself again staring at Roy in disbelief, unable to comprehend how a father could be so cold, so uncaring, that he used his own son's life as a bargaining chip to stop himself from spending the rest of his life in jail. She knew instinctively, that Mike would have laid down his life to save hers in a heartbeat.

Roy could only nod his agreement to what he knew Jeannie was thinking as he continued, "I'm the one who made the decision not to tell you or Sandra about what we had discovered until after we were certain that what Keller had told us was true and we had Mike and Steve back safely. I didn't want to get your hopes up that Mike and Steve were alive, in case Keller was lying. But while we were rescuing Mike and Steve, Brian Keller managed to escape from custody."

"How?" Jeannie asked.

"How doesn't matter at the moment, Jeannie, but what does matter is what happened last night when Keller turned up in the ICU, armed and drunk, yelling about how Mike had tried to keep him away from his own son. He was screaming that Steve was his kid and not Mike's, and demanding to see Steve." Roy told her quietly. "He was not only drunk but also angry and belligerent and become violent, swearing and hitting a nurse with his gun when she tried to stop him before taking her hostage. The commotion must have woken Mike up and he tried to protect Steve by calling out, probably in an attempt to distract Keller and stop him from getting near Steve."

"And that's when he tried to shoot Mike," Jeannie breathed as she finally knew all the details of what had happened.

Roy looked down at the table and sighed, "And Keller left me no choice."

"You had to shoot him." Jeannie finished for him.

Roy nodded as he looked back up at her, "Yeah, I had to shoot him, but that's not why I am telling you about all that happened. I mean, I believe you that have a right to know what happened but the reason why I am telling you this is also because I think that you should know to understand the reason why Steve kept his past a secret from us. It wasn't because he didn't trust us, but I think it was more about that he wanted to leave both his father and his painful past behind him and move on. I think Mike understood that, after Steve opened up a little to him after he had that nightmare during the stake-out. I think Mike discovered on his own about the abuse Steve had endured at his father's hands right throughout his childhood, and Steve's belief that the accident that had killed his mother was not an accident at all. And that's why Mike tried to run interference between Steve and his father.

I don't know just how much Sandra told you, not much I guess because I never told Sandra everything that I just told you. But I do want you to know is that Steve blamed himself at the cabin not only for Mike getting caught up in his father's crime but also for Mike's death. He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry. He still is not well enough to even comprehend that Mike is alive, so I need you to imagine just how guilty he is feeling and just how guilty he is going to feel when he discovers everything that happened after his rescue from the cabin. And on top of that, he now also has to deal with everyone knowing the secrets of his past that he tried so hard to keep a secret."

Reaching across the table, he grabbed Jeannie's hand as he continued, "So, if Steve's going to get through this, he's going to need all our understanding, love and support, but he's going to need Mike's and your love and support the most. He is going to need to know that you don't hold anything against him for hiding his past from us, that what happened wasn't his fault, and that he has nothing to feel guilty about. That he is just as much a victim as Mike was." Squeezing Jeannie's hand, he asked softly, "Do you think that you can do that?"

Jeannie swallowed hard, and nodded as she wiped away a tear, "For Steve, of course I can," she whispered before she looked back up at Roy and weakly smiled through her tears, "Thank you for telling me."

Roy nodded and squeezed her hand tighter, "Thank you for understanding why Steve did what he did, by hiding his past from us. All I can say, is your dad raised one hell of an amazing and compassionate girl. And I know that with you and Mike in his corner, Steve is going to make it through this."

Biting her bottom lip as she looked down into her cup of coffee, Jeannie asked, "So, do you think that he really did it?"

"Who?" Roy asked, confused about what and who Jeannie was referring.

"Steve's father! Do you think Steve's right and he really murdered Steve’s mother?" Jeannie asked softly, looking up at Roy.

"Yeah, I do," Roy answered honestly, remembering the heartless admission that Brian left in the letter that he had in his pocket in which Brian had claimed that Steve was the reason why he had murdered Steve's mother, "Yeah, I do." He repeated softly as he unconsciously reached into his pocket to feel for the letter scribbled on the envelope that he was going to burn after he got home. His face paled as he realized the letter was no longer there, Swallowing hard, he forced a smile as he removed his car keys and looked across at Jeannie and suggested, "It's getting late, how about I get you home and Sandra can pick you up in the morning to take you back to the hospital."

Jeannie nodded as she pushed her untouched coffee away from her and rose to her feet as Roy rose to his. Dropping some money onto the table to pay for their coffees and slices of pie and well as leaving a sizable tip for the waitress, Roy followed Jeannie out of the door as he quickly searched his other pockets, praying that he would find the missing envelope in one of his other pockets.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

"And George, remember this time to empty all the trash cans in the bullpen. Last night you forgot to empty the one next to the coffee table and tonight it's full!" Floyd called as he looked up and saw his partner walk past the lieutenant's office.

"Will do." He heard his partner yell as George continued to mop the corridor outside the lieutenant's office door.

"Will do." Floyd mimicked his brother-in-law, sarcastically, momentarily wondering why he had given into his wife's nagging about her no-good, lazy brother needing a helping hand with getting a job and how he should put a good word in for him with his boss. He had managed to wrangle a job for the lazy son of a bitch on the night shift, cleaning. The only problem in order to secure his brother-in-law's employment, he had to agree to take George on as his partner and teach him the ropes.

Pulling out the dusting cloth from his back pocket, he growled softly to himself, as he smelt the tell-tale odor of cigarette smoke drift in and he knew instantly that George was taking yet another five minute cigarette break, his third such break for the night so far, despite the fact that they were not even a quarter of the way through their shift. Hell, a few months in the doghouse for not listening to his wife would have been better than this he decided as he dusted the top of the filing cabinet before moving across to the lieutenant's desk.

Tucking his dusting cloth back into his back pocket, he glanced back towards the door and yelled, "Hell George, put out that damn cigarette and get back to work!"

He could almost see George jump in surprise and quickly drop and crush the remaining unsmoked part of his cigarette beneath his foot in his head as he heard George guiltily answer, "Okay, okay, I'm going." Returning his attention back to the lieutenant's desk, he began to straighten it up, picking up the pens and dropping them into their container as he heard George's mop bucket scrapping along the floor accompanied by George's fading mutter of, "Jesus, there's no need to get your panties in a knot. It ain't like the trash or the damn trash can are going anywhere…" as George headed towards the homicide bullpen.

Looking back towards the door and shaking his head in disgust, Floyd sighed, the next time his wife asked for him to do a favor for one of her family members, the answer was going to be a resounding 'No!' even if it meant that eating cold cuts for all his meals and sleeping on couch for the rest of the year. Returning his attention back to the desk, he could not stop the angry growl that escaped his throat as he stared down at the envelope that had Inspector Keller's name messily scrawled across the front. "What was wrong with people these days? Even the damn boy from the mailroom is just too damn lazy to do his job properly. Just how hard is it to drop the mail on the right person's desk? Looks like I'm going to have to do his damn job as well!" he muttered to himself as he picked up the envelope and slipped it into his shirt pocket before he reached around, pulled his dusting cloth back out of his back pocket and quickly wiped it the polished surface of the lieutenant's desk.

Satisfied that the desk gleamed, he nodded as he straightened up and tucked the cloth back into his pocket and looked around the office with a critical eye, searching for anything that he might have missed. Finding the office was cleaned to his high standard, he turned and picked up his bucket of cleaning products and headed out of the office, almost crashing into the lieutenant as Lieutenant Devitt rushed into his office.

"Sorry," Roy apologized as he grabbed the arms of the cleaner, whom he had almost bowled over in his rush to search for the missing envelope, steadying the older man.

"It's good." Floyd smiled the lieutenant released his arms. Stepping aside to allow the lieutenant to enter his office, Floyd turned and asked, "Pulling another all-nighter tonight, Lieutenant?"

"Uhh, yeah, you could say that." Roy answered distractedly as he quickly crossed the room, scanning the floor and his desk for the missing envelope.

"I don't know just how you guys do it, working such long hours." Floyd shook his head, "And the things you guys have to see and deal with day after day, I don't know that I could don't know if I could do it. You guys really have my admiration."

"Thanks," Roy murmured, only half listening to the cleaner's chatter, as he sat down at his desk and opened his top drawer.

"No really, Lieutenant, I had thought of becoming a cop when I was younger, but I was knocked back because of I failed the physical. It was that damn obstacle course that did me in, For the life of me, I just didn't have the strength to push that damn two hundred and twenty-five pound sled that damn five feet, in fact, I couldn't budge the damn thing at all and as for dragging that damn heavy dummy …" Floyd shrugged, embarrassed, realizing that he was rambling as he watched the lieutenant search through his drawer before he finished softly. "Anyway, enough about that. I better get out of your hair and let you get on with what you are doing."

Looking up from his drawer as he heard the wistfulness and embarrassment in the other man's voice, Roy looked at the older man, "You know what Floyd, I think the department made a mistake when they turned you away because you failed the obstacle course because I think you would have made a damn good cop."

Standing up a little straighter, and proudly puffing his chest out a little, Floyd could not help the huge smile that appeared on his face, "Thanks Lieutenant," he grinned, blushing a little as he turned to leave before he stopped and turned back, "Oh, and Lieutenant, after we finish cleaning the bullpen, I will put on a fresh pot of coffee for you."

"Thanks," Roy smiled at the cleaner as Floyd turned and almost bounced with pride out of the room. Waiting until Floyd disappeared from sight, the smile on Roy's face faded as he returned his attention back to the contents of his drawer and began searching desperately through it for the envelope. Not finding the damning letter, he quickly closed the drawer before searching the two drawers beneath it for the same fruitless result.

Sitting back up, he ran his hand through his hair as he began to stare into space, mentally trying to retrace his steps from when he had last saw the letter. The last time he had seen the letter was when he had placed it in his coat pocket when he was leaving the office earlier, before Nat had stopped him to give him the message from Sandra and to tell him that he was going to put the brakes on Mike and Steve sharing a room until the investigation into Mike's supposed role in the kidnapping was investigated. It seemed like years ago.

If it had fallen out of his pocket here, he would have found it on the floor or if someone had picked it up, then the chances were, he hoped, they would have placed it back on his desk. He knew it hadn't fallen out of his pocket in the car during his drive home or to the hospital, he had turned the car inside out, searching for it, in case it had, before he had come back up to his office.

He blinked and sat up straight. Of course, that's it! He had gone home and changed after he had left the office and before he had gone back to the hospital. He laughed at himself as he jumped to his feet and hurried towards the door. That's why the envelope wasn't in his pocket at the hospital because it wasn't the same coat he was wearing when he left the office earlier tonight!

Glancing down at his watch, he shook his head in disappointment. It was almost one am. Sandra would kill him if he woke her up by turning on the bathroom light to search for his pockets when he got home. Although she would understand, he did not even want to share the letter and its contents with her. He sighed, as much as he wanted to destroy the letter, it was just going to have to wait until later this morning.


	25. Chapter 25

Staring up at the white foam tiles that lined the ceiling, Mike began to try and count the dimples again. He had attempted to count them twice before but had lost count each time when he had thought he had heard someone approach his new hospital room, only to be disappointed when the visitor was a nurse either taking his temperature or changing his IV bag.

"Twenty- four, twenty-five, twenty-six," he murmured before losing his concentration as his thoughts drift back to Nat's visit earlier this morning. Nat had brought him up to speed with everything that had happened with not only his and Steve's kidnapping, but also the aftermath of what had happened. And how, because of his own investigation into Brian Keller, Roy and the boys had been able to discover the truth behind his and Steve's disappearances and how they were able not only to find them, but also carry out their dramatic rescues. Nat had told him about the subsequent, damning allegations that had been levelled against him by both Yates and Davids that had led to the IA investigation.

The IA officer had hurriedly reassured him that he had been cleared of all the accusations of his involvement in being involved with the double-crossing and stealing of over one million dollars worth of stolen diamonds from Quintin that had led to Steve's and his own abductions.

Nat had smiled proudly as he told him about how he and his partner had not only closed the case but had also spoken with the DA about the case's unusual and sensitive nature. Nat had pleaded with DA that if any deal was to be offered to Yates and Davids, that the deal would include a plea of guilty with no criminal trial, so Steve would not have to face dealing with not only his father's involvement in what happened, but also his past he had tried to hide so desperately being aired and dissected with all the city watching and knowing. Nat grinned as he added that DA had informed him just as he had arrived at the hospital to not only visit Mike but also to check up on Steve's recovery, that the two men had jumped at the deal, preferring to spend the rest of their miserable lives in jail with the slim chance of parole rather than spend the rest of their lives in prison with the knowledge they would die there for capital murder of the young drug addict and the aggravated kidnapping of two police officers, plus a slew of other charges.

Just before Nat left, Nat had reassured him that he had given the doctors the all-clear to allow Steve to share a room with him and he expected that they would be reunited later this morning. A reassurance that was confirmed when the doctors had later moved him into a shared step-down room that had been temporarily upgraded to a double shared, intensive care room with the promise that Steve would be moved into the room soon.

Staring up at the ceiling, Mike took a long shuddering breath, ignoring the pain that radiated through his chest as his broken ribs protested at the expansion of his chest, as a tear slowly rolled down the side of his face as he forced himself to acknowledge the damning guilt of his own culpability in what had happened. His guilt washed over him like a tidal wave, raw and violent, taking his breath away as another tear rolled down his face and the tiles above him became just a blurry sheet of whiteness he was staring at as more tears began to fall.

After Steve's nightmare, he had pushed the younger man to open up not only about his past and his father's abusive behaviour but also his suspicions about his mother's death. Steve had begged him to leave his past in the past where it belonged, had even told him that he just wanted to forget and move on. But he hadn't been able to let it go. He loved Steve like a son and had only wanted to protect him. And the only way he thought that he could do that was to find out as much as he could about Brian Keller, Steve's childhood and Brian's Keller's true involvement in his wife's death, especially after he discovered that Steve's father was up for parole. He had gone to the prison to warn the man to stay away from his young partner.

But it had all blown up in his face after Keller had been released from prison and had tried to contact Steve despite his warnings. What was meant as a meeting with Keller to warn him again to stay away from his son had almost ended with not only his but more importantly Steve's death, when someone had seen them together and assumed that they were colluding to steal Quintin's stash of stolen diamonds.

Mike swallowed again, trying to force down the bile that rose in the back of his throat, threatening to choke him as he forced himself to admit that he was just as guilty as Brian Keller, Sam Quintin, Yates and Davids, if not more, in everything had happened to Steve. And that it was his fault, and his fault alone, that Steve now had to face the fact that his darkest and closely kept secrets now out in the open for all his friends to see. Mike swallowed a sob as he prayed that one day Steve would find it in his heart to forgive him because he knew he could never forgive himself for what had happened.

SOSF SOSF SOSF

_Slumped against the wall where his father had just thrown him, Steve saw his father grab his mother by the front of her dress, pulling her back up to her feet before he punched her again. Ignoring the pain in his chest caused by the punches he had received from his father just minutes before, Steve scrambled back to his feet and lunged across the room, desperately grabbing his father's arm as he tried to pull him away from his mother. He heard his father's furious, drunken roar as the older man spun around towards him and the air rushed out of his lungs as his stomach erupted in a fireball of pain as his father's fist buried itself deep into his midriff, doubling him over in pain as he lost hold of the drunken man's arm. "Stay out of this, you little brat! This is all your fault!" he heard his father scream as he was bodily picked up and thrown back across the room._

Steve tossed in his sleep unable to escape the nightmare as his father shimmered and faded in front of him before morphing into Quintin.

_"This is all your fault, yours and your God +damn father's!" Quintin screamed, slamming the barrel of his gun across the side of his face. Steve's head snapped sideways under the impact before dropping down on his chest as the world around him turned grey and his knees buckled beneath him. He would have collapse to the floor if it wasn't for the bruising grip that yates and Davids had on both of his arms, holding him upright_. _He could not stop the moan of pain escaping from his lips as Davids grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked his head up before he heard Quintin scream through the roaring noise in his head, "Last time, Cop, you better start telling me what I want to know or else you are going to find yourself down the bottom of that ravine, right next to your dead buddy!"_

_The scene changed again, and he found himself standing alone in front of a freshly dug grave with a coffin balanced delicately above it as the sound of a twenty-one-gun salute echoed across the graveyard. Looking up he found himself looking across the coffin at all his and Mike's friends and colleagues, some in uniform, some in dark suits and dresses, and all protectively surrounding Jeannie who was standing on the edge of the grave staring at him. "I'm sorry, Jeannie," he managed to choke out._

_Jeannie shook her head, "No, no, you're not. You did this, Steve. You killed Mike! This is all your fault!"_

_"This is all your fault! This is all your fault" The rest of his friends and colleagues joined in as the chant grew louder and louder until it reached a deafening pitch._

Standing up as Steve began to toss and moan in his sleep, Sandra stepped across to the side of the bed and grabbed Steve's hand as she gently brushed a damp strand of hair back off his forehead, murmuring the same soft words that she would murmur to her own boys whenever they had a nightmare when they were younger. She jumped in surprise as Steve suddenly cried out and opened his eyes, the fear and anguish left over from the nightmare still lingering in them as he stared unseeingly at the ceiling.

Rubbing his cheek lightly with her hand, she murmured, "Hey, hey it's okay, Sweetie, you're safe, it was just a bad dream. It was just a dream."

Steve blinked and swallowed hard as the accusing chant slowly faded from his mind. Taking a deeper breath, he winced as a sharp pain lanced through his chest. Focussing on the face that hovered above him, he blinked again, attempting to bring it into a sharper focus. "Sandra?" he whispered; his voice no stronger than a weak whisper.

"Yeah, Sweetie, it's me." Sandra nodded, squeezing his hand a little tighter. Lightly clearing her throat as she blinked back a relieved tear, she gently cupped the side of his bruised face as she smiled down at him, "Good morning, Sleepy-head. I'm glad that you have finally decided to wake up and say hello to me."

"W…where?" he asked confused as he stared up at the bag of blood and the bag of clear IV fluids that hung on a pole above him, before he turned his head just far enough to look at the heart monitor sitting on the table next to the bed before he looked back at her.

"You're in the ICU of San Francisco General Hospital," Sandra told him. "And Mike's in a room just down the corridor, waiting for you to share the room with him."

Steve shook his head weakly, releasing Sandra's hand as he turned his head away, a tear trickling down the side of his face as he whispered, "No, …no, he's …not. Mike's…dead…" Swallowing down a sob, he closed his eyes tight, trying to shut out the world around him as he forced himself to admit, "And...and it's my…fault… "

Glancing over her shoulder as the nurse and an orderly entered the room to begin Steve's transfer into the shared room with Mike, Sandra softly asked for them to wait a minute. Glancing at upset young man in the bed, they nodded and stepped back a little to give Sandra and Steve some privacy as Sandra turned back to Steve. Slipping her hand into Steve's hand again, Sandra reached across and cupped the side of his face, turning his head to face her as she ordered, softly but firmly, using her mother's no-nonsense voice that she used even now with her own grown boys, that she knew any child, irrespective of their age, knew better than to try and ignore, "Steve, open your eyes right now and listen to me!" She waited a heartbeat before she saw him reluctantly open his eyes and look at her, the pain, guilt and devastation in them easy to read.

She nodded, satisfied that she had his full, albeit limited attention because of the medication that he was currently receiving to keep him as pain and stress free as possible, as she lightly squeezed his hand again. "Good boy. Now I want you to listen to me and pay heed to what I am telling you, young man, because I am not going to repeat myself. Now, I don't know why you would ever even think what happened to you or Mike was any of your fault because it wasn't! And as for Mike being dead, I want you to get that silly thought out of your head right now! Do you hear me? Because he's not!"

Steve stared up a her, even in his foggy state he knew that in all the time he had known her, Sandra had never once lied. "Mike's…alive?" he asked breathlessly, his disbelief and hope evident in those softly spoken words.

"Yes, Sweetheart, Mike's alive." She reassured him softly as she reached up and wiped the tear that had trickled down the side of his face with the back of her finger as she continued, "He's a little sore and banged up just like you are at the moment, and he's just as worried about you as you are about him, but he is most definitely alive. And I know for a fact that not only Mike, but also Jeannie, are anxiously waiting for you to be moved into his room as we speak." Looking back over at the nurse and orderly, she nodded, before she turned and looked back down at Steve and smiled, "So do you want to leave them both waiting, or should we get moving?"

"Let's… get … moving," Steve whispered, struggling to get enough breath to speak.

Sandra nodded and whispered, "Okay, here we go!" before gently releasing his hand.

Quickly moving out of the way to allow the nurse to move closer, Sandra watched as the nurse quickly and carefully disconnected Steve from the room's heart monitor as the orderly moved forward and carefully placed the glass chest tube bottle on the small metal rack beneath the bed. Giving Steve another small reassuring smile when they had finished, she turned and followed them as they wheeled his bed out of the room.


	26. Chapter 26

Quickly brushing away the tears as he heard the door to his room open, Mike took a deep shuddering breath, ignoring the pain it caused as he attempted to regain some sense of control of his rampant emotions as he turned his head to face the door. He felt his breath catch in his throat as Sandra walked in, smiling as she stepped aside to allow a nurse and two orderlies to wheel Steve's bed into the room.

"Steve!" A relieved smile tugged at Mike's lips as he tried to pull himself a little higher up in the bed, ignoring the white-hot bolts of agony that radiated through his body as he tried to get a better look at his closest friend and partner as Steve was wheeled into the room. Semi-reclined against several pillows strategically placed behind him, Steve's pale face only accentuated the dark bruises that marred his face and peeked out from beneath the stark white bandages around his chest, his arm was enclosed in a heavy cast rested upon a pillow. As Steve was wheeled closer, Mike could see a clear plastic tube which appeared to have blood in it emerge from the bandages encircling Steve's chest and disappear down the side of the bed.

"Mike!" Steve whispered as he stared, almost in disbelief, at the other man in the bed.

Sandra felt her smile grow, even though she had reassured Steve that Mike was alive and that he would soon join him, she knew that Steve needed to see Mike to really believe that Mike was truly alive.

Mike swallowed hard as he reached out and grabbed Steve's arm as Steve's bed was wheeled close to his, "Yeah, Buddy boy, it's me!"

"Yeah," Steve laughed breathlessly as he gripped Mike's arm, reassuring himself that Mike was really there and not just part of a dream, "Yeah …it really…is... you!"

"Yeah, it's really me!" Mike grinned, as he reluctantly released Steve's arm and felt Steve lose the weak grip he had on his arm, as Steve's bed was wheeled into place just a few feet away from his own. His grin was replaced with a worried look as Steve momentarily disappeared from his sight as the nurse stepped between them and began to reconnect Steve to the heart monitor, oxygen and other medical equipment that surrounded the bed. The doctor had not been exaggerating when he had told him about Steve's injuries.

Feeling a smaller hand slip into his, Mike turned his head and looked up at Sandra's smiling face. "He's going to fine, Mike, especially now he has you by his side," she told him as she glanced across at Steve's bed before looking back down at Mike and lightly squeezed his hand. "You both are!"

Mike swallowed hard and nodded, looking back across at Steve's bed as the nurse carefully adjusted the flow of one of Steve's drip before she turned and checked the tube that emerged from Steve's chest.

Satisfied that Steve was settled and comfortable as Steve's eyes drifted closed, she turned around to check on Mike, glancing up at his heart monitor before returning her attention back to him and asking him if he needed anything for his pain. Shaking his head, Mike thanked her and answered no. Eyeing him sceptically, the nurse frowned, aware that he was overdue for some more pain medication but decided to let it slide for the moment as she glanced back towards his partner in the other bed before turning back to him. Reminding Mike to press the nurse call button if he needed something for the pain, she turned and left the room, followed by the two orderlies.

Squeezing Mike's hand again, Sandra waited until he looked back at her before she announced softly, "I will be back soon, I promised Jeannie that I would pick her up this morning and bring her back to the hospital." Looking across at Steve, who appeared to have drifted back to sleep, she looked back at Mike and said softly, "He needs you, Mike, now more than ever."

Blinking hard, Mike nodded, as the guilt he had been feeling earlier returned with a vengeance almost robbing him of his breath as he turned back towards Steve and whispered, "I know."

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Rudy looked up from the file he was reading as Roy rushed into the office and hurried around to the other side of the desk and sat down before opening the top drawer of his desk and rifling through it. Rudy grimaced as Roy slammed the drawer closed and yanked open the drawer below it, before he began to rummage through it, before slamming it closed and moving onto the bottom drawer. "Lose something?" he asked, chuckling softly as his friend jumped guiltily and looked up in surprise.

"Ahh, Rudy, I didn't see you there." Roy swallowed nervously as he closed the drawer gently and sat back up on his chair.

"I noticed," Rudy grinned as he placed the file he had been perusing back down on to the desk. "But you still haven't answered my question."

"And just what question was that?" Roy asked innocently.

"Did you lose something?" Rudy asked again.

"Just a letter, it's not really important, I'll find it later." Roy shrugged before he frowned and asked, "Ah, is there something I can do for you, Rudy?"

The Homicide captain shook his head as he nodded his head at the open file he had placed on the desk. "No, I was just flicking through the file Mike kept on Keller." Glancing down at the file before he looked back up at Roy, "I've seen and dealt with some real bastards on the job, Roy, we both have, but from what I have read, Keller certainly takes the cake. It's amazing that Steve even managed to survive his childhood and to turn out as well as he did…" The older man shook his head as he closed the file and pushed it away in disgust, "No wonder why Mike wanted to protect him from the bastard!"

"Yeah," Roy said softly as his eyes drifted to the file with Brian Keller's name neatly printed across the front of it in Mike's distinctive handwriting.

"How are Mike and Steve doing? I mean really doing, Roy?" Rudy asked, "I called the hospital but all I get is the standard answer of they are both critical but stable, whatever that means these days."

Roy shrugged, "Physically, Steve was touch and go there for a while, but his condition has stabilized enough for the doctors to allow him to be moved into a room with Mike. And Mike, well, Mike's going to be off work for a while, but the doctors are confident that he will make a full recovery although they are monitoring him closely for an infection because of the gunshot wound. I think they are worried that he could develop peritonitis or septicaemia. And if he does then Mike might be in some real trouble!"

"And mentally?" Rudy asked softly.

"Mentally?" Roy sighed, "I'm not so sure. Steve was blaming himself for Mike's death and everything his father had dragged them into when we rescued him. I'm hoping that being able to share a room with Mike might help, and also reassure Mike that Steve is safe. But Steve still has to face that not only does everyone he works with know about his father's involvement but also the fact that many of us also know the secrets he tried so hard to keep, even from Mike, about the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of his father and the probability that his father murdered his mother."

"Does he know about his father's death yet?"

Roy shook his head, "No, not yet. He is still extremely weak and pretty out of it with the medication he is on and the doctor doesn't want him to know until he is a little stronger and more able to fully comprehend what he is being told and deal with it."

"Do you think that after Steve is told about his father's death, a visit from Murchison might help?" Rudy asked quietly.

Roy shrugged, "I guess it couldn't hurt, Steve and Mike have worked with him a few times, so Steve knows him, and he might be able to help Steve get through this. God knows, he's going to need all the help he can get to get through this."

Standing up, Rudy nodded, "I'll bring Murchison up to speed with what's happening before I head across to the hospital." Picking up the file and a pile of cards and letters that were sitting on the desk, he added, "I found a heap of cards and letters on both Mike's and Steve's desks. I thought I would give them to them while I am visiting them. You know, let them both know that everyone is thinking of them."

Roy nodded, "Tell them that I will be by later, I still have some paperwork to do and I want to check with Lessing and Tanner about how the Morten case is going."

"I will," Rudy promised over his shoulder as he turned and headed towards the door.

Roy watched Rudy as he walked out of the office and out of view before he turned and opened the bottom drawer of his desk and began to search, pulling out every scrap of paper, every file, every pen and every pencil that was in there. The letter had to be there, it wasn't in his suit pocket when he had searched for it this morning, nor had it dropped into the clothes hamper that he had emptied all over the bathroom floor, much to Sandra's annoyance, as he searched for it. There was nowhere else it could be!

SOSF SOSF SOSF

Entering the shared ICU room, Sarah glanced across at her sleeping patient, relieved that the lieutenant had finally relented and had taken his pain medication. Walking across to the bed, she reached for the thermometer, giving a quick flick of her wrist to ensure the mercury was in the bulb before she carefully and deftly slipped it under his armpit. Gently placing her fingertips on the inside of his wrist, she silently counted the soft beats as she watched the second hand on her watch, memorizing how many beats she had counted before she began to count the gentle rise and fall of his chest. Releasing his wrist, she removed the thermometer from under his arm, holding it up to get a correct reading before placing it back into the kidney dish on the table beside the bed.

Satisfied her patient was stable, she walked to the end of the bed and picked up the chart, glancing at the other nurse who entered the room and headed towards the inspector's bed before returning her attention back to the chart and jotting down the results of her observations.

"Janey was just telling me about what happened here last night." The other nurse said softly as she glanced up at the heart monitor before gently folding back the sheet, exposing the thick white bandage that encircled Steve's chest and carefully examined the blood filled tube that emerged from beneath the bandage and disappeared down the side of the bed to drain into the glass bottle sitting on the ground. Covering her patient back up, she looked across at Sarah as she continued, "Poor Debbie, she must have been terrified. I mean, one minute she is sitting at the nurse’s station writing her reports and the next, she is being dragged down the corridor by an intoxicated man with a gun who wanted to kill Lieutenant Stone and who was yelling something about Inspector Keller being his son, not Stone's. And that Stone had no right keeping him away from him."

Sarah nodded as she glanced back at her patient, reassuring herself that Mike was still asleep and was unaware of their conversation before she looked back at the other nurse and whispered. "She was just lucky that the other lieutenant was here and that he was a good shot. But he still didn't manage to nail the gunman before the gunman got a shot off, missed Lieutenant Stone by less than an inch. The lieutenant was lucky that he was a poor shot."

The nurse nodded her agreement as she changed the empty drip bottles, replacing them with new ones before hanging them back up on the IV pole. "I heard the gunman really was Inspector Keller's own father. Janey told me that he died on the operating table." Glancing up at the heart monitor as the beeps began to race before she looked back down at Steve who still appeared to be in asleep. Even though he was still lightly sedated, the night nurse's report did warn her that he had appeared to have had several nightmares during the night. Satisfied a nightmare was responsible for the sudden spike in his heart rate, she gently patted Steve's uninjured hand and whispered a few words of reassurance before straightening back up and collecting the empty IV bottles.

"I also heard that after he was shot, they found with a heap of diamonds in his pocket. Rumour is, he stole them from a guy who carried out some sort of a diamond heist and that the inspector was somehow involved." Sarah whispered, enjoying having a good gossip whenever possible, despite having already being warned by the charge nurse that the next time she was heard gossiping in front of a patient, whether they were conscious or not, she would be moved to another floor, as Steve's nurse joined her and they turned and headed towards the door, "And he’s the real reason why the lieutenant were grabbed…"

Steve waited until the two voices and the footsteps faded away before he slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the fuzzy white ceiling above him. He swallowed hard as the nurses' softly whispered conversation replayed in his head. Even in his half-drugged state a single thought formed in his mind, _'The nurse was right. He was responsible for everything that had happened. He was responsible for all the torment and pain his mother had endured trying to protect him when he was a child, and he was responsible for her death. Just as he was the reason why Mike was grabbed and was now lying beside him in a hospital bed. If he hadn't been born, then none of this would have happened, he wouldn't have ruined his father's life. And as long as he was around, he would continue to ruin the lives of the people around him, even Mike's. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get as far away as he could before he ruined anymore lives.'_

Gritting his teeth, he weakly pushed himself with his one good arm up into a semi-sitting position on the bed, ignoring the agony that tore through his chest and the sudden dizziness that threatened to topple him as he slowly slipped his legs over the bed's edge. Seemingly unaware of the shrilling alarm of the heart monitor beside the bed and the numerous tubes and wires that were connected to him, he pushed himself off the bed.

"Steve!"

He looked up at the blurry shape in the doorway, just as his legs gave out from beneath him.

Dropping the handful of cards and letters that he held in his hands, Rudy rushed across the room, managing to catch Steve just as the younger man's legs gave out from beneath him. Although he wasn't able to stop Steve from collapsing, he was able to soften the fall as he caught Steve and slowly lowered him down onto the ground before he turned his head towards the doorway and yelled that he needed help.


End file.
